Anywhere But Home
by Krazy Ky-Sta Hatter
Summary: After the Northwest Ball, Pacifica decides to run away from her toxic family. With nowhere else to go, she finds herself at the Mystery Shack. But there are more than just ghosts in this town. Witches, a psychotic dorito, a mystery writer, and strange creatures that call her name out in the woods. Gravity Falls is weirder than she had thought, and she may not be able to survive it.
1. One By One They Went Away

_**Hello! So, I know I have my 3 chapters before posting rule, but I decided that I want to post this one now. I have so much of it pre-written at the moment, I kind of just have to finish the second half of chapter two and I'm there anyway.**_

_**Anyone who follows me on tumblr will probably know by now that I am massively obsessing over Gravity Falls. And, well, after watching 'Northwest Manor Mystery' Pacifica became my precious. The way her family treat her reminds me way too much of how my mother and aunt treat me. (My father situation is closer to Soos's). I related a bit too much, and then suddenly this happened.**_

_**Just so you all know, for the sake of plot-line, McGucket never came in to warn Dipper. That will come in later. Also, the twins and everyone else their age are 17, which would make Wendy 20 and Soos 27. Most other people are roughly around the same age. Having been though some of this, I personally don't think that a 12 year old is capable of making the decisions made in this story. Not properly anyway. Also, as Alex says, 12 year olds shouldn't focus on romance, they should focusing on Pokemon and pop tarts.**_

_**So, I hope you like it. Next part will be on it's way soon.**_

.

.

.

**One By One They Went Away**

.

.

Pacifica smiled as she looked over the room. It was so full and lively, and everyone seemed to be pretty happy. For once she didn't actually find this thing boring. And despite what she had feared, everyone was getting along. The rich and the poor, all laughing together and having a good time. None of the wealthy people seemed to be holding any animosity... well, except her parents.

She saw them standing not too far off, scowling and looking at the towns people in contempt. They hadn't spoken to her since she'd let everyone in. She bit her lip anxiously, thinking about what they would say when they finally got the chance. Of course, they wouldn't dare make a scene in front of everyone.

That feeling of dread swelled up within her. It formed into a tense ball that sat in her chest, making it feel hard to breathe. Her gut clenched, and she clasped her hands together to stop herself from nervously fidgeting. It would be fine. They'd just yell at her again. And she would go back to her room and pretend like nothing ever happened. The true way of the Northwests.

Gathering her composure before anyone noticed, she looked away from her parents and out at the dance floor. Lots of people were dancing away, some with partners, some by themselves, or in a group. The most noticeable couple was Grenda and Marius. The larger girl was practically dragging him as she swept around the floor. But the both of them had huge smiles on their faces. It was actually quite entertaining to watch, and even made her giggle a little.

Not far away from herself, Dipper, Mabel, and Candy were dancing in a small group. They were doing a lot of weird moves, and not all of them matched up with the music. Mabel looked ridiculous most of the time, but sometimes she would grab her brother's hand and they would do a small dance together. It was fascinating to watch. They didn't seem to have anything planned, and they didn't communicate with each other. They just instantly started doing the dance, as if knowing exactly what the other wanted. It was interesting the way the moved together... It must have been a twin thing.

She felt a little left out and began looking around for her friends, Tiffany and Aubrey. They were nowhere to be seen. Maybe they'd gone home early... She felt herself deflate a little, disappointment welling up in her. She swore those two had some sort of animal instinct. They sensed a storm coming, and decided to get the hell out of dodge. It was a good idea... If only she could actually do it.

Once again she looked out at everyone dancing. It was strange to think that only a few hours ago, a fair amount of these people had been turned into wood. It was almost shudder inducing remembering watching Dipper be changed. His flesh turning to wood, slowly creeping from his legs, up his body, till he was completely lifeless. Fear and agony plain on his face. That was why she had done it. He had believed in her, he saw that she wasn't like her family. And he had given her the strength to defy them. It had been horrible to see it happen... It must have been so much worse for him to have seen it happen to his sister.

"What are you looking for?" a voice said behind her. The sound itself had her panicking for a moment. She whipped around, thankfully only finding Dipper.

"Oh, it's just you," she said, her sigh of relief sounding slightly bitter out of habit. She saw the look of annoyance on his face and grimaced slightly. "Sorry. I was looking for Tiffany and Aubrey... but I guess they've gone home already."

"But, aren't they like, your best friends or something?" he asked. "I mean, they follow you around all the time, so... Shouldn't they be here for the ball."

"There's a bit of a storm coming. They don't like storms."

"But the weather's meant to be clear all week," he said in confusion.

She shook her head. "Never mind."

Dipper looked at her a moment. She seemed downcast, and more quiet than usual. He knew they hadn't always gotten along, but things had changed tonight. He had seen an entirely new side to her, and seeing her like this was actually making him feel bad. "Hey, want to dance?" He held his hand out to her.

Pacifica quirked an eyebrow when she heard what song was playing. _Don't Know Why_, by Norah Jones. It was more of a slow song. "Can you even dance to something like this?" she teased. Still she placed her hand in his.

"Of course I can," he said, instantly leading her off on a slow waltz. His arm came up so he was holding her waist, and her other arm automatically found his shoulder. His feet moved and hers followed, perfectly matching it, though she was barely aware of doing so. For a moment she was nonplussed by the movement. He was good... Really good.

"Wh-where did you even learn to dance like this?" she asked, slightly awed. She certainly hadn't expected this out of Dipper Pines.

He just shrugged. "When we were younger Mabel wanted to do ballroom dancing. So naturally I went with her."

"Do you two just do everything together?"

"Pretty much. We're twins. She's my best friend. Most things we wanted to do together anyway, and the rest our parents made us go with each other. Mabel wanted to dance, I wanted to do boxing. They thought it was a fair trade."

"So you can both box and dance?"

"Well..." he said, drawing the word out. She got the impression that if his hands were free, he'd be scratching the back of his head nervously. "Not exactly. I can dance, and Mabel can box... Not the other way around." He gave her a sheepish grin. She smiled back.

She never realised how nice he really was... She probably never knew because she was too busy being horrible to them. She started to feel the guilt slide down her throat like an unpleasant tar. She realised that she didn't want to be that person. The Pines twins were so nice to her, and she wanted to be nice back... they deserved it. But not only that, she didn't want to be who she was. She didn't want to be like her family. She'd always had her doubts about them, always knew that at least part of what they were doing was wrong. But she'd never had the courage to do anything about it. Never been able to stand up to them, but Dipper had showed her that she could do it. She just had to be brave enough.

She looked back to where her parents were, only to see them glaring at her. The lack of air to her lungs happened astoundingly fast, and her head felt a little light. She was going to have to be _very_ brave. Settling with distraction for now, she looked back up at Dipper. At seventeen he was over a head taller than her... not something hard to achieve these days. He had a light little bit of stubble on his chin, and his brown eyes were sparking under the ball lights. He looked nice in the suit she'd lent him, but he did look a little odd without his hat. She was just so used to him wearing it. He was looking over her shoulder, his facial expressions changing a bit every few seconds and she realised he was pulling faces at Mabel. Some sort of silent communication. He looked back down at her and grinned again, albeit a little nervously. As he did, his hair moved about she saw something red on his forehead.

"Hang on, what was that?" she asked curiously.

"What was what?" He seemed a little confused, and tried to follow her eyeline upwards.

"That red mark on your head."

Hastily he took his hand away from her waist to flatten the hair over his forehead. For a moment he reached upwards, as if to pull the brim of his hat down, only to find nothing. He looked a little dejected at that. It almost made her laugh. "It's nothing," he said, placing his hand back on her waist. "Just a birthmark. I tend to keep it hidden."

"Yikes, fair enough. I'm glad that mine is somewhere easy to hide. No wonder you're always wearing that hat."

"You don't know the half of it."

The chorus of the music grew louder, then. And the two of them just continued to waltz, listening to the smooth lyrics.

.

'_My heart is drenched in wine  
But you'll be on my mind  
Forever_

_Something has to make you run_  
_I don't know why I didn't come_  
_I feel as empty as a drum_  
_I don't know why I didn't come_  
_I don't know why I didn't come_  
_I don't know why I didn't come..._

'

.

Slowly the music faded out, and their movements slowed to a stop. Dipper stood back from her and gave and awkward chuckle, scratching at the back of his neck.

"Yeah, so... now you know my secret."

"Secret?" she said, a little confused. What secret? Did he mean about the journal and all the weird stuff that went on in this town? His birthmark?

"Yeah, that I can dance."

She smirked. "Out of everything, that's your secret?"

"Well, not one of my biggest ones, but yes. I usually just tell people I don't really dance."

"Well, you're not horrible at it."

"Yeah, well, neither are you."

"Of course I'm not. I used to compete!"

"Really?" he said, sounding delighted and surprised. "Me too!" He seemed to realise what he'd said. "I – I mean..."

She just giggled at him. He seemed so uncomfortable about... well, everything. It was actually kind of endearing... She did not just think that.

Looking about, her face drained of colour. When had the room gotten so empty?! What had once been a full ball room not too long ago, had now dwindled down to the dregs of people. She watched as another couple left, waving a goodbye to the hosts. Since they weren't the towns folk, her parents gave a half hearted wave back. They still didn't look very happy. This wasn't good.

"What's wrong?" She looked up to see Dipper looking at her in concern.

"Everyone's leaving."

He looked at his watch. "Well, yeah, it's actually past midnight. Some people walked here, so they left a bit early. You really don't want to be out alone at night in this town."

"Because of all the crazy things here?"

"Yep. Not even I know everything that goes on here. I only have one journal." She looked at him questioningly. "There's three of them. I have the third one. Gideon Gleeful had the second, but I have _no_ idea where that went. We've never seen the first. And we have no idea who the author is. That's my main priority at the moment. Just... well, the town is so over run by all these creatures I keep getting distracted."

"I wonder why they suddenly started to show themselves now?" she mused.

"Oh, they've been out and about for years. It's just that no one remembers. Turns out that Old Man McGucket was this brilliant scientist who worked with the author. But he couldn't handle what was going on and built a memory ray. He used it on himself so much that it drove him insane. But he also founded this secret society called The Blind Eye, who basically went around kidnapping people who'd seen something and erasing their memories of it... wonder why they never got me, Mabel, and Grunkle Stan..."

"...This town is messed up," was all she said in response.

"Hey, Dipper!" Maybel's harsh voice called out. "Grunkle Stan's here to pick us up. He doesn't want us walking home so he came to get all of us."

"Yeah, okay," he called back. "Just give me a minute, I need to grab my clothes. You go on ahead."

"Okay!" She was pretty close by, but that didn't stop the eccentric girl from shouting. She gave her brother a wave before heading out the door with her two equally strange friends.

Dipper turned back to Pacifica. "Um, would you mind telling me where I got changed again."

She sighed and rolled her eyes. "This way."

She led him out of the main hall and into the corridor. Even though she didn't dare look, she could practically feel her father's glare follow her till she was out of sight. Once she was in the corridor, she visibly relaxed. She knew that being out of his site would do nothing to ease what awaited her, but it made her fell a little better... Well, until she thought about what awaited her, that is.

Her house was huge, but she knew it so well that it wasn't long till they were at the guest room where he'd changed. A butler had neatly folded his clothes and placed them at the end of the bed, his hat sitting atop the pile.

"Um... what should I do with the suit?" he said uncertainly.

"Just throw it in the hamper." She shrugged. "Or keep it. I don't know, your choice."

"Okay, thanks. Ah, I think I know my way back from here if you want to go back to the party."

"Right... Yeah. I should do that..." She paused at the door, then turned back slightly. "Um, Dipper? Thanks. For everything." She shot him a small, but sincere smile.

"N-no problem," he stuttered. Okay, maybe it was still a little strange seeing her be this sincere. It was a nice change, but still a little odd. "I'll, um- I'll see you later."

"Yeah, later..." She forced another smile, then left to let him get changed in privacy.

Since the party was technically still going, she had no choice but to go back to it. It was the polite thing to do, and to be honest, she would only make it worse for herself if she didn't. Walking back she felt like she had a rock sitting in her stomach. It weighed her down, making her moments slow. Her hands were so jittery that she screwed them up in the purple fabric of her dress.

When she reached the ballroom, her heart almost stopped. There were only seven guests left! The room looked fuller than that of course, considering all the staff who were still working away. But she had been trained to look past them, and she knew her parents thought of them as practically non-existent until they wanted something. She saw their head butler, Murphy, standing not far from her parents. Seeing her enter he gave her a sympathetic smile.

Since there weren't many people left, there was no reason for her to mingle. Instead she stood politely at the edge of the room, making sure she was close to the door. It wasn't long till Dipper ran out past her, waving a goodbye.

Marius left almost immediately after him. And not long after that the two policemen left, saying that they should patrol the roads and make sure everyone got home safely. Barron Applegate was still talking to her father, but two others walked out the door. Two more. There were only two guests left.

The thought made her stomach churn, and she started to feel sick. Her nerves grew more and more tense as every moment passed. The woman in the fuchsia dress received a call to say her ride was there, then bid them a goodnight, and left. It was getting hard to breathe. She was – she was… she couldn't breathe. Was she hyperventilating? She was most certainly becoming light headed and things started to spin slightly. She was watching her parents talk to Barron Applegate as if she were staring down a long tunnel.

He gave them a low bow and swept out the door. She flexed her shaking fingers, trying to get rid of the feeling of pins and needles that had crept into them. That was it. He was the last guest. Gone.

Her father walked over to the door and shut it behind the man. Then he went to the side and placed his hand on the lever that she had pulled only a few hours ago.

She couldn't breathe.

He pushed the lever up. The main gates closed with a resounding thud.

She couldn't…

.

.

.

_**Ta da! Yeah, I may have written this a bit like a minor panic attack, but in all fairness she probably would have one. I was in a worse state than this just thinking about spending Christmas Eve with my family.  
I seem to be sticking with the tradition of brands and strange TV names, but I just can't bring myself to garble songs. So all artists and songs will be real songs. Adiós for now!**_


	2. Toxic

_**Hey everyone! I got this out faster than I thought I would, considering the issues I am having with my computers. Just so you know, I am Kiwi, and we use English spelling. You have no idea how weird it is to write 'mom'.  
Speaking of mums, if you read the AN from the last chapter, you will know that I relate a bit too much to Pacifica. This is because my own mum and aunt are very much like her parents (just a little poorer, really). So the upcoming argument is based off some of the things that have been said to me at some point.**_

_**So, without further ado, Chapter 2, brought to you by conversations with my mother.**_

* * *

.

.

.

**Toxic**

.

.

"Pacifica!" her father's voice rang out in the empty room. He whipped around and stalked over to her, looming above her. The sight was horribly intimidating, as if she wasn't already trembling enough. Her mother walked over to join him and they both glared down at her.

She knew that look, having been on the receiving end of it many times before. The one look spoke volumes. You're inadequate. You're a disappointment. You're weak. You're incompetent. You're careless. You're foolish. You're immature. You're flawed. You're beastly. You're wrong. You're imperfect. You're unreliable. You're useless. You're pathetic. You're shameful. You're a mistake. You've failed us. You're not worthy of being a Northwest, because a Northwest is the best.

Instantly she looked down, her hands clasped together in front of her.

"Pacifica Elise Northwest, do you have any idea what you've done? Any idea of the shame you've brought on this family?" her father scolded. "I am furious with you. You directly disobeyed me! Letting all that… rabble into the house! Look at the mess this place is in!"

"But Dad, if- if I hadn't let them in then-"

"Be quiet!" he snapped. "I am talking to you!"

"Honestly, Pacifica," her mother sighed. "You should know better than to talk back."

"But, Mom, all those people, your _guests_, would have died if I didn't-"

"We told you not to talk back!"

She hung her head again. "I'm sorry," she said quietly. She really did know better. If she carried on that way it wouldn't lead to anything good.

"No you're not!" he shot back, making her flinch at his tone. "If you were sorry then you never would have done this. The house is trashed, our name is ruined. No one will ever come to the party ever again. No one wants to mingle with that lot." His nose scrunched up in disdain as he spoke about the towns people. "And just look at our good carpet! Mud _everywhere_! What do you have to say for yourself?"

"I'm really sorry, Dad," she said, her voice still quiet. "But if I hadn't done it, that ghost was going to kill everyone. He can go through walls, he would have found us. And he was going to burn the house down. And Dipper-"

"Dipper!" he hissed. "That Pines brat is the reason we're in this mess. His job was to capture the ghost before the party, and what does he do, he lets it go. And then he has the gall to start spewing false accusations at us. He's no different from that cheat of an uncle of his."

"He-he was just trying to help. The ghost broke free and-"

"If we ever see you near that boy again we will make sure that he is out of this town for good. Stanford Pines is not fit to take care of children. All it would take is one phone call to Child Services and it's back home to the city for them."

Her mouth dropped open in horror. They couldn't do that! They had no right!

"You- you can't!" she cried.

Her mother laughed, sounding horrifyingly close to a villain from TV shows. "Of course we can. And why do you care. It's not like you like them. They're not your friends, Pacifica. You're better than them. Or do you want to be a piece of garbage like them? You want this family to fall to ruin and for us to live out in the slums of the street, don't you?" She said nothing and her mother scowled. "Yeah, you're just a traitorous little bitch, aren't you?"

She bit her lip, almost drawing blood. She wanted to say something. She wanted to defend herself, but she couldn't. It was her mother's favourite trap. It clearly wasn't true, and she refused to agree. But if she even opened her mouth to disagree, well... she knew what would happen.

"See," she said. "You're not saying anything because you know I'm right." And there it was. That was the trap. "You've ruined everything. You and those Pines brats. You've been nothing but appalling since you met them."

"Nothing strange ever happened in this town until they came along."

She couldn't stand it any longer. Staying silent. It only made her angrier, wishing that she could say more. Accusing her was one thing. But Dipper and Mabel had been helping this town since they got here. Helping her. Dipper had been so kind to her, even though... Dipper had showed her that she could stand up to them. And she was going to.

"No, they've always been happening!" she defended them. "But everyone in this town is just too dumb to notice! Just like they're too dumb to see how badly we treat them, and how much we lie to them!"

Before she knew it, her father's hand was swinging around towards her. She didn't have time to bock it or move away, only to tense and prepare for the pain she knew would come. His hand smacked into her hard, making her head turn with the force. She almost fell over but quickly righted her footing. It took a moment for the pain to actually set in, then suddenly her cheek was burning. Her hand flew up to press against it. Even with her glove on, her hand seemed slightly cooler, and that helped, but she used a little too much pressure and it made her wince. Tears prickled in her eyes. She wanted to cry. In pain. In anger. But she refused to do it in front of them.

"How dare you," he growled.

"I'm sorry," she squeaked.

"No you're not! You're a selfish, spoiled little bitch. We gave you everything. We did everything so that you could have the best start in life. And you slander and disgrace us like we are the scum of the earth. We own this town, we own _you_. You are supposed to do as you are told and act like a proper heiress, instead you disgrace us at every turn."

He had slowly been walking towards her as he shouted, backing her up. And by now she was practically pressed against the wall. She didn't want to be standing close enough to him that he could hit her again. Once again, her mother stepped up beside him so that she could get in on the berating.

"You're pathetic," she sneered. "You think that you can run around with your new little friends and ruin everything." She scrunched up her nose at the words 'little friends' sounding like she were talking about a cockroach. "You may as well go join them, you're no better than they are." Pacifica hung her head, she knew how her family thought of other people. She knew what they thought of the pines. They back-talked everyone once they were out of hearing range, even their friends. The only difference with her was that they didn't care if they said it to her face.

"I-"

"Shut up!" she hissed. "I don't want to look at you anymore. Go somewhere we won't have to see you."

Her entire body deflated. She knew that arguing further would lead to nothing good. But hearing that was like a punch to the gut. She also wanted to stand up for herself, but there was nothing she could say that her parents couldn't twist around. Nothing that wouldn't lead to more arguments, or more of a beating.

She hesitated a moment, not sure whether to stay or to run. She watched as her mother turned her back on her, her father just scowled. It wasn't the scowl he used for others. No, this scowl was especially for her. It held just as much of the disdain, as well as disappointment, and a look that gave the impression of betrayal.

Clenching her jaw and ignoring the pain it caused her, she turned on her heal and strutted off down the hall. The further she got away from them, the more her strut turned into a run, and the more the tears welled up in her eyes. By the time she reached her room, she was gasping and sobbing. Angry tears streaked down her face as she slammed the door and kicked it for good measure. She scrubbed furiously at her eyes, annoyed at the tears for falling. She shouldn't be crying. She couldn't. She was stronger than that. She paced the room a few times, too livid and upset to stay still. She shook her hands vigorously, trying to get the trembling to stop. She hadn't stopped crying yet, but she would. She was stronger than that.

Oh, who was she kidding. She wasn't strong at all. She was just a stupid little girl who was too weak to stand up to her parents, so she took it out on other people. She was no better than them.

Her pacing slowed right down, and she slumped to the ground. She curled up, holding her knees. Her back fell against the side of her bed, and she hung her head in the hollow between her knees and her chest. She didn't care about not crying anymore, she just let it come, a heaving sob wrenching its way out of her body.

It wasn't fair. Everyone else already treated her like she was the worst person in the world. Yeah, that may have been her fault. But not her parents. Her parents shouldn't be treating her like that. They always told her that she was supposed to be the best, but everything they did and said only continued to prove that she was the worst. Parents weren't supposed to treat their kids the way hers did.

She continued to weep, memory after memory passing though her head. All the things her parents had said to her for the last few years raging through her head, drowning her in their torment. Thinking about one thing made her think about more. And more and more painful memories of her parents abuse resurfaced, making her curl up tighter. She didn't deserve this. Or maybe she did. She didn't know anymore.

There was only one thing she did know. She couldn't stand this anymore. She had to get out. She had to get away from this toxic life, and those toxic people. She had to get away. She had to.

.

It took a while for her to calm down enough to stop crying and collect herself. But when she did, she stood on numb, shaky legs, a new resolve in her eyes. Her face was set in determination as she headed towards her closet. She forced her way out of the horrible, uncomfortable dress her mother had made her wear, slipping into something more comfortable. Then she pulled her suitcases from the back of her wardrobe and began to browse her clothes.

She began picking enough outfits to last her a couple of weeks, as well as any other essential items. And by essential, they probably weren't, but she'd need them for something, right? She had clothes prepared for any type of weather, even freezing cold weather. Since it was summer she probably wouldn't need them, but who could take that risk. After adding all her beauty products and bathroom accessories, she had about five suitcases... Yeah. There was no way that she was getting out of here with all those.

There was a sudden beep that distracted her, and she went over to her dresser where she'd left her phone that night. She picked it up to see a message from Tiffany.

'_Howd it go?'_ was all it said.

'_Not good,' _she typed back. She went over to the wall and pressed the buzzer that would have a butler come. She made sure to type in the code so that she would get one in particular. Her phone went off again.

'_O dear. Scale of 1 – 10?_'

'_20\. I'm running away.'_

She went into her closet again and went even further into the back. She found one of her old school backpacks that she used to use before she got to high school and started using either a satchel, or some swooning kid to carry it for her. She could have used a tramping bag, but that was a little big. She'd need something small and light if she was going to escape. She was partway through packing it with the most essential things when her phone went off again.

'_Wait, wat? No! That a bad idea. U no wat will hapen if u do. Not gonna go well.'_ A small mix of anger and self doubt burst through her. On the one hand she was annoyed that her friend would try and stop her, when she knew full well what her parents were like. But on the other hand, Tiffany _was_ right. No. She'd made up her mind. She was going.

'_I can't take anymore, Tif. I'm just going away for a few weeks. They'll probably calm down by then.' _There was a quiet knock at the door right as she sent the text.

"Come in," she said. The door creaked open and Murphy stepped in.

"Ma'am."

"Murphy! I need you to do me a favour. A huge favour."

He smiled fondly and rolled his eyes, something that only he could get away with, and only from her. "Ma'am, I am your butler. It is my job to do as you ask."

"Yeah, but this is big. Really big. You can't tell my parents." He nodded in understanding. She knew that he wouldn't. Murphy had been with them long before she was even born, he had known her all her life. He was the only one in this house that she could trust completely. "I'm running away."

He looked about at all the bags on the ground. "Looks to me like you're more going for a holiday to the lodge, Miss Pacifica. There's no way you can take all this with you if you don't want your parents to notice."

"That's why I need you," she told him. "I have this small bag to take with me for tonight. I was thinking that when I find a place to stay for a few weeks, I could message you, and you could bring my bags to me there."

He nodded, knowing what she was like with her things. "Alright. Do you have a place to stay tonight?"

"Um... not really."

"Would you like me to call a hotel for you?"

"No, no, it's okay. I need to go somewhere where they can't trace me. They'll find me at Tif or Aubrey's place. I'll just find someone who'll put me up. I doubt many people would be adverse about it if I give them a few hundred."

"As you wish, as long as you stay safe."

She smiled at him. "I will."

"Though, I will request that you do not leave right away. I have some things to give you that may help you."

She nodded in agreement. "Yeah, I'll stay a little longer. I should probably write a note to Mom and Dad. They won't find it for a while, so…"

"A wise idea, ma'am. Would do better than having wide scale investigations. I shall take your bags and be back with some aid."

"Thank you, Murphy," she said greatly.

The man went over to her bags and expertly picked all of them up at once. Then he left her room. She wasn't scared that he would be caught. Her parents would have gone to sleep already. She quickly finished packing her small bag full of night clothes and a few changes for the next day. She found her sneakers and put them on, as well as a nice warm jacket. It was pretty chilly outside tonight. It was when she went to pack her phone in the bag that she saw another text from Tiffany.

'_They r goin 2 kil u, Paz. Dont do this.'_

'_It's fine. I have everything sorted. I need you to cover for me. If they ask, you know nothing about this.'_

She chucked the phone in her bag and zipped it up. Then she went over to her desk and began her letter. It started out as a simple explanation of why she was running away, but the more she went on, the more she found herself venting about how they treated her and how it made her feel. She wanted to scribble half of it out so that they wouldn't see it, and would never have to respond to it. But some defiant part of her wanted them to see it, wanted them to know how she truly felt and saw them. And yet another part of her wanted to screw it up and start again, leaving a fair amount out. By the time she was done writing the letter, she was a frustrated, sobbing mess again. She folded the paper up, scrawled 'Mom and Dad' on the outside, and placed it on her bed.

She wiped at her eyes and grabbed up her bag. She was just waiting on Murphy now. As it turns out, she didn't have to wait long. She had only been sitting on her bed for a minute when he came in, a small bag in hand.

"Ah, good. You're still here," he said with a smile. She returned his smile and jumped off the bed to go talk to him. "Right, I have some things you will need. Good, I see you're dressed sensibly for this."

"No, Murphy. I'm going to hike around town in the middle of the night in my ball gown."

He just shook his head at her sarcasm. "Right, first off..." He reached into the bag and pulled out a flash-light. "You'll need this. It's very dark out there. This is high powered and solar charged, so it won't run out tonight." Next he pulled out a cellphone and charger. It wasn't as flash as her own, but it wasn't too shabby either. "Use this phone when you are set up. Your parents don't know the number, so it can't be traced. My number is already in there if you need me." He pulled out a bottle and a small bag of what looked to be sweets. "It's a bit of a hike into town, especially if you go the way I have planned. This will help keep your energy up. And finally..." He pulled out a piece of paper and a small grey disk attached to a key-chain. He lay the paper out on her desk, and she saw that it was a blueprint of the house. Certain things had been marked out in different colours. "This is how you are going to get off the grounds. Of course, after tonight, security is set to maximum. So you're going to use the servants passageways to leave the house. There is a door into them directly across from your room, but you'll have to wait for the camera to turn this way." He pointed out the door and the camera and she nodded in reply. She knew the one he was talking about. "Follow the passage along here and downstairs. If you turn right here, it will lead you to the kitchens. Once again, you will have to avoid the camera here. The back door to the kitchen will take you out to the back of the house, which is where you need to be. You'll need to use this to get through the door. The code is on the schematics." He gave her the disk and she recognised it as the sensor keys they gave to the servants so that they could get in and out of the house. Murphy was the only live in butler. "Once you're out, stick to this wall, you won't be fully out of the way of the camera, but you'll be less noticeable. Once you get to here, follow this path I've marked across the garden. It's a very thin blind spot. Over here by the wall, there is a small wooden door. It hasn't been locked in years, but is a bit stiff. It will take you right off the property and into the forest out the back. Now, the forest is _not_ safe. But you'll have to travel through it just to the bottom of the hill. Try and head this way so that you can meet up with the road at the bottom of the driveway. From there you can walk into town. If you can't find anywhere I want you to ring me. I also want you to message me if you do find somewhere safe. Understood?"

She nodded again, looking in awe over the information and items he had given her. "Bloody hell, Murphy. You could rob this place if you wanted to!"

Murphy just winked at her. "Alright, now take these things and go. I'll cover for you for as long as I can."

Tears began to well up in her eyes, but this time for an entirely different reason. Without warning, she threw her arms around the butlers waist. "Thank you," she whispered.

Murphy smiled fondly, patting her on the head. "It's alright, my dear. Now, you best get going. It's getting very late."

She drew apart from him and nodded. With one last reassuring smile, he left the room. She unzipped her bag again and put in the cellphone and its charger. She popped one of the sweets in her mouth before she put that and the drink in her bag too. She zipped it back up, swung it over her shoulder, and headed out of the room.

She flicked off the light and watched the camera just down the hall, waiting till it was facing away from her. When she was sure she wouldn't be seen by it, she dashed across the hall to a door that was slightly hidden by the wallpaper that covered it. It opened easily and she slipped in and closed the door. She was instantly plunged into darkness and she let out a small yelp of surprise, fumbling for the torch. When she managed to turn it on, she the thin beam illuminated a thin, dark corridor. It was shabby, and looked like it hadn't been looked after like the rest of the house since it had been built. There were many small spider webs about, and she shuddered thinking about the creepy crawlies that would be lurking around.

Taking a deep breath, she began down the passageway, looking at the blueprints for guidance. It was strange, but even though she was in such a confined space, she felt as if she were only getting lost. It was like being in a maze. It seemed to take a long time till she reached another door, and she was scared that she'd made a wrong turn somewhere. But when she opened the door, she found herself in the kitchens.

Following Murphy's instructions, she went to the door and scanned the disk. When it asked for a number, she entered in the four digit code that was written at the top of the paper. The machine beeped green and the automatic lock snicked open. Quickly, she snuck out the door and crept along as close to the wall as she could, until she came to the spot that had been marked out. From there, she crossed their massive lawn, making sure to keep close to all the landmarks she could see that were inside the highlighted blind spot. Finally she came to the big wall that marked the edge of their property. Well, they owned the entire hill, but their building officially stopped at the wall. She knew that the top was rigged with barb-wire that set off an alarm if enough pressure was put on it. So the door was the perfect option.

It took her a minute or two to find it. It wasn't as clear as she thought it would be, and it was hiding behind a bush. It was also _very_ small. She would have to push her backpack though first, then crawl out after it. It looked just wide enough, though. The hatch to open it was rusty and it took more than a few good pushes to wrench it open. The screech it made as it did was so loud in the silent night, she was scared for a moment that someone would have heard it. But when no lights turned on in the house, she carried on. She took her bag off and pushed it through the gap and off to the side. Then she wriggled past the rest of the bush and got down on her hands and knees, almost commando crawling through. By the time she was on the other side, her hands, elbows, and knees were covered in dirt. With a sigh of annoyance and disgust, she brushed away as much as she could. Then she knelt again and pushed the little door closed.

Starting to feel tired, Pacifica leant against the wall. Thank god that was over and done with. It had turned out to be a bit easier than she had originally thought, but it was still a relief. She was out of there. She was free. All she had to do now was make her way into town and bribe someone to let her stay the night. Should be easy enough. Most people around town would do anything for a decent sum of money. She just hoped that that trait of theirs wouldn't back fire and lead to them selling her out.

She stopped a moment to open her bag. She put the disk and the blueprints in there now that she was done with them. Then she took a long swig of the drink, and popped another sweet in her mouth. She grabbed a small handful and put them in her pocket so she wouldn't have to keep stopping to get them out.

After one last look at the map, she did the bag back up and hoisted it onto her back. With a faint smile, she strode off in the general direction that would end up getting her to the road. The walking was a little tricky. There was no clear or defined path, just random little ridges that must have been created by animals at some point. And not only was it hard to see, even with the torch light, but the ground was slippery due to the layer of pine-needles that littered the ground.

She wandered down the hill for what seemed like a while. She was sure that she should be coming to the road soon, but she couldn't see any sign of the trees thinning out. Maybe she really had taken a wrong turn this time? It was hard trying to navigate a forest when you had nothing to go off and no sense of direction. There would have been a high chance of her having walked in circles a few times, if it weren't for the fact that she was still on the hill. The only logical way to go was down. As she kept going, the more she felt as if she were becoming hopelessly lost.

She stopped again, hoping to try and gain some idea of where about she could be. That was when she heard it. A clear familiar voice ringing through the forest.

"Pacifica!"

.

.

.

* * *

_**And that was chapter 2!**_

_**I actually already have 5 pages of the next chapter written out. I kind of got exited about a certain scene and wrote that part first. So it shouldn't take me too long to get it out. Till next time!**_


	3. Calls in the Dark

_**Hello again!**_

_**Whew! I really did get this one out fast. And it's LONG. I had the last five pages of this chapter already written by the time I had finished the first chapter. And I ended up writing another three.**_

_**This chapter introduces my big bad monster for the series. I'm not actually going to tell you what it is for a LONG time, though. I also recently got 'Dipper and Mabel's Guide to Mystery and Fun', so there'll be a few references to that along the way.**_

_**I seem to be powering through this story REALLY fast. And on top of this (and the 80+ other stories I am writing... btw, that is not an exaggeration) I now have at least 7 Gravity Falls art projects going. At least no one can say I don't do anything with my life... except my family, but meh.**_

_**Anyway! Enjoy the uber long chapter!**_

* * *

.

.

.

**Calls in the Dark**

.

"Pacifica!"

Instantly, she froze in place, her heart stopping a moment before beating hard against her chest. No, it couldn't be. Not yet!

"Pacifica!" her father's voice rung out for a third time. It sounded like it was coming from off to the left, but she couldn't tell how far away he was.

But it wasn't possible. They couldn't have caught her already? She was sure that they wouldn't have even woken up if she tried to escape _without_ Murphy's help.

"Pacifica, darling, please come back home!" another voice called. Her mother.

No. No, it couldn't be them. They wouldn't have noticed she was gone by now. And if they had, they _wouldn't _be this nice. After tonight, they would still be furious.

"Pacifica!" they both shouted.

Her heart suddenly felt as if it had been hit with a brick of ice. She felt cold and her breath stuck in her throat. It wasn't them.

Without another thought, she took off running. She ran away from the voices as fast as she could. They weren't her parents. Whatever it was, it wasn't them. Dipper had said that there were dangerous things out at night. And Murphy had said that the forest was dangerous. After tonight she should have known better.

She ran as fast as she could, the voices continuing to shout out her name. They didn't sound as if they were getting any further away. Panicked, she pressed on. The torch in her hand was swinging wildly, making it hard to see.

Suddenly her foot caught on something and she found herself tumbling to the ground, her stomach feeling like it was left behind. She crashed down hard on her knees, sticks and pine needles digging into her. She continued to fall, her hands failing to catch her properly, and felt her chin graze the ground. The torch was thrown from her hand and skittered down the bank. With a small crunch, the light disappeared and she was plunged into darkness.

"No, no, no, no!" she cried, scrambling up and trying to get to where she had last seen the light.

"Pacifica!"

They were so close! Ignoring the light, she got to her feet and started running again. Not used to the darkness, she had no idea where she was going. She stumbled many times and and at first almost ran into a tree. She could tell that she was running downhill, but it seemed like the trees were getting thicker. As the hill started to even out into flat, she was sure that the trees should be getting thinner by now. Instead she was barely missing them as she ran, sometimes getting scratched by stray branches. The voices were still following her. They never seemed to gain on her, but they were always getting closer.

She continued running, searching for anyway out she could. Then she saw it. Light. There was light up ahead. She ran towards it as fast as she could, tripping on yet another tree branch on the way. She burst out of the trees into... a sparkly clearing. All around her, the clearing was dimly lit and glittering. She couldn't tell what was making it glow like that, but it was kind of strange, and very magical. It looked like some kind of fairy glade or-

"Ah!" she cried, as she fell over for the... well, she'd lost count of how many times she'd fallen over.

"Ah!" something cried back.

"Ah!" echoed many voices.

She looked down to see that she'd tripped over a pile of... little men? There were a whole lot of little men with beards and pointy hats... _What the hell?! _

"Eh? Who the hell are you?" asked the only one with a beard that wasn't white. "What are you doing in our forest?"

"I – I – Um-"

"Pacifica!" Her head whipped around in fear at the voice, and suddenly every single little man in the area began to scream in panic.

"It's coming!" the same one shouted. "Run! Everyone flee!" He stopped and turned back to her. "Welp, it was nice knowing you, pretty lady. Shame you're gonna be eaten, because you would have made a lovely Gnome Queen. But I gotta skedaddle. Bye!" And quickly he dashed up a tree, a bunch of squirrels flocking him and getting him up faster.

Taking the hint, she began to run again, struggling to make her away across the gnome infested ground. There were way more of them than she had thought, all scurrying to find a safe place. One even tried climbing up her leg, but she kicked it off.

It wasn't long till she'd cleared the sparkly part of the forest, and was back in the regular forest. And once again, her sight was lessened because of her recent exposure to the light. She chanced a glance backwards. She couldn't really see anything. The gnome forest was still sparkling lightly, but it seemed quieter now. That was all. There was nothing else to indicate that a creature of unknown horror was-

"Ahhh!" she cried as she fell yet again. This time a sharp pain shot through her foot, making her wince. She got up again and went to run. Pain lanced through her foot again. "Ah, ow!" She hobbled slightly and almost toppled over as she failed to balance on the foot that wasn't hurting. Crap, she'd hurt it badly. But she still had to flee. Gingerly, she tried to take yet another step, only putting pressure on the foot for a fraction of a second. "Ow!" Okay, limping it was. She could do this. She just had to get out. She just had to find the road and-

"Pacifica! Please, honey, come home!"

"We love you, sweetheart. Come to me!"

Nope. Fuck that.

Ignoring the pain, she began to run again. It was slow and staggering. Each step brought her pain, but in her determination to get out of there she found she was able to ignore it. As she ran, she became aware of two things. One was that the trees were starting to clear slightly, enough that she could be running on what could be classed as a path... a trail at least. The other was a strange chattering, swooshing sound... Water! She was near a river. Oh, that may not be a good thing.

The sound got louder and soon she was running to the bank of a river. She began to panic all over again. What was she going to do? How was she going to get around it?! Looking about wildly, she saw a shadow on the river. With the trees gone from the area, there was just enough moonlight to show that the shadow was a large log lying across the body of water. She was so relieved, but there was no time to celebrate. Quickly she crawled onto the log and carefully moved across. If she fell, she was screwed.

It seemed that the log was used as a bridge often enough that the top layers of bark had been worn down so it was much smoother. It meant that her knees didn't get torn up as much as they already were, but it still hurt. Once at the end, she jumped down, cringing as she jumped on the foot. Tears were streaming down her face, but she only realised they were there because of the cold wind whipping at her. She took a last look back to the other side of the bank, preying that what ever was chasing her couldn't climb a log or swim. Right now there was nothing over there... wait, something moved. She peered closer. She could just make out the silhouette of... a deer or something, but it just leant down to eat some grass.

Not wasting any more time, she turned and started running again. Soon she was back in another forest, but this time it seemed thinner, and she was running on a defined trail. She heard the creature call out again, noticing something that gave her a bit of hope. She listened for the second call carefully... It was quieter. They were getting further away. They were still on the other side of the river! She slowed her pace till she came to a stand still. She was exhausted, ragged breaths being pulled from her lungs. She leant carefully so she was resting on her knees, but also so that she was putting all her weight on one leg. No, that wasn't going to work. She needed to lie down. She needed to sleep.

Desperately she looked about. The trees looked as if they were starting to clear, and she could see... a light! There was a light ahead. That probably meant that she was near a street. Or even better, a house. She could pay whoever it was to let her stay the night. Right now, anything was better than this.

She waited a few more minutes to catch her breath, then took a step forward and gasped, her leg buckling underneath her. The adrenalin was starting to wear off now, and it must have been keeping her from feeling just how bad her ankle was. And then she'd continued to run on it, and probably made it worse. Now that she'd slowed down, she was really starting to feel the pain. She'd probably twisted the ankle. She was covered in aches and sore spots she knew were going to come out in nice dark bruises. And sharp stinging ones where she'd been scratched. Her leg itched, and she had the feeling that she had blood running down it from a cut.

Behind her that thing called out again. It still wasn't getting any closer. She puffed out a sigh of relief and started onwards. Slowly she limped towards the light, her foot aching sharply with every step she took. It was still quite a bit of a walk across the empty stretch of grass that spanned her path to the light. And it was taking even longer because of her pace now.

It was as she passed the looming shadow of a totem pole that she realised where she was. The Mystery Hack... er, Shack. Dipper and Mabel. They were all on better terms now. They'd take her in for the night, right? At any rate they knew what was out there, and they wouldn't want her out in it. Dipper had said so himself, you don't want to be out here at night.

By the time she got to the door, she just wanted to curl up in a ball. She was sore, and tired, and feeling upset and shitty. And quite frankly she felt she had sunken so low that she'd be willing to sleep on their porch if they didn't let her in. She just couldn't go any further.

Raising a grazed hand, she rapped on the door and waited. When no one came after a minute, she knocked again. Still no one. It was as she was about to knock for a third time that she heard footsteps coming towards the door. She wobbled on her foot and clung to the door frame as the handle rattled. The door swung open and she was faced with the oh so pleasant sight of Cheapskate Pines in his boxers and singlet top... Ew.

He looked down at her and raised an eyebrow. "Pacifica?" he said in surprise. She gave a slight nod, unsure of what to say. He took a closer look at her and his eyes widened when he saw the state she was in. "Holy cow, what happened to you?!"

"I, um – I was walking though the forest, and there was some sort of freaky creature out there calling to me. So I started running, and then I fell down a few times. And I _really_ hope I don't look as bad as I feel."

"Well, what the hell were were you doing out in the woods?"

"Uh... I was coming to see Dipper," she said, not entirely lying.

He raised a sceptical eyebrow. "At four in the morning?"

She looked about, trying to think of an excuse. She didn't have one. She hadn't realised it had gotten so late. "...Yes."

He looked her over critically again, his eyes narrowing. "Alright, fine. Come in." She breathed out a sigh of relief and stepped inside. But she put too much weight on her injured foot and winced in pain. Stan noticed this and frowned slightly. "Here," he sighed. She looked up at him to see him offering her his arm.

With a hesitant smile she placed her hand in the crook of his arm. "Um, thanks."

"Yeah, well, don't want you messing that ankle up even more," he grunted as he led her inside and helped her over to the couch. It was old and grotty, and she didn't really want to sit on it. But there wasn't really a cleaner option. Once she was sitting, he cleared things off the side table and pulled it around in front of her, placed a pillow on top, and suddenly grabbed her leg and propped her foot up on it. The movement was unexpected and she let out a yelp. She almost let out another when she saw that the side table was actually a large scull or something. Some sort of dinosaur by the looks of it."I'll go get Dipper. Knowing him, he'll probably still be up looking at that blasted journal."

He left the room muttering something about how he could swear 'that boy' knew the entire thing by heart by now. His voice faded out, replaced by the creaking of the stairs. She pulled the bag off her back and placed it on the couch beside her. Opening it, she took a quick look at her phone. There were only a few messages from Tiffany, telling her to do what she wanted since she would anyway, and that they would talk in the morning. '_Do what you want, you always do anyway_'. Yeah, because that made her feel even better right now. Huh, it really was after 4am! She grabbed the other phone that Murphy had given her and quickly sent him a message to tell him she was safe... well, barely, but she had made it somewhere.

Thankfully there were no messages from her parents. Of course, they probably wouldn't realise she was gone till the next night. When she didn't come down for breakfast or lunch they would think she was sulking. It wouldn't be until dinner and they demanded her presence that they would find her gone. It was probably better that way. The longer they took to notice, the longer she wouldn't have to deal with them trying to get a hold of her... that was a daunting thought.

Next she took off her jacket and stuffed it in. It was much warmer in this little room than it had been outside. The TV was still going, so Stan must have been watching something. But it was now playing some black and white period piece old lady boring movie... Something called 'The Duchess Upholds'. It looked seriously boring and weepy, she highly doubted a man as... er... well, a man like the twins great uncle would watch something like that.

It wasn't long till she heard someone coming back down the steps, distracting her from how gross the couch was. She looked over to the doorway to see Dipper walk into the room. He was wearing his usual redish orange shirt, and a dark blue pair of boxers. His hat was absent, but he was holding something in his hand. He looked a little groggy, but she could tell that, like her, he hadn't slept at all yet.

He stopped short when he saw her. "Pacifica?"

"Is everyone in your family going to have the same reaction?" she said sarcastically.

"Sorry, Grunkle Stan didn't actually tell me who was down here. I'd narrowed it down to Wendy, Candy, and Grenda. He said you were a bit scratched up- Oh wow, you are _really_ scratched up! What happened?" He came and knelt next to her, opening the pack in his hand which turned out to be a first aid kit.

"I was walking through the forest, and then something started calling out my name. I kind of got freaked out and started running, and I tripped up a couple of times. I mean, it was dark, I couldn't see."

He looked at the bag beside her and quickly came to a conclusion. "You ran away from home."

"Yep," she sighed.

"What were you doing in the woods? Where were you heading?"

"I don't know. I went the back way out of my house, and that leads right into the forest. I was trying to think of where to go when those things started up."

"What about Tiffany and Aubrey? Couldn't you stay with them? I mean, the road there is much safer."

"That's the first place my parents will look. Come tomorrow they'd be around there and dragging me back home. Plus the road to my house is covered in security sensors and cameras."

"Oh, fair enough, I guess. …Did you hurt your ankle?" He gently picked it up in his hands.

"Ow!" she cried out. "Yes! Yes, I think I twisted it!"

"Sorry," he said. Being even more careful than before, he lightly felt around it and gently prodded it. It seriously hurt for him to do that, but she knew he was trying to help, so she just held her tongue and winced. "Yeah, it's definitely twisted, at least. Could be strained. I'll get some ice for it, and bandage it up. It's already swollen and bruised, but it will help. And you've also got a lot of bruises and scratches, so I'll put some ointment on them."

"Right little medic, you are," she teased. He smiled at that.

"Mabel and I are kind of what you'd call 'accident prone'. I got pretty good at fixing us up over the years."

"Oh."

"Okay, this is going to hurt, but I'm going to have to take off the shoe." She bit her lip, not liking the idea, but gave him a firm nod. Carefully as he could, he untied the shoe and pulled the laces out so that it was as loose as possible. Then he slowly slipped it off. It felt like someone was twisting her foot around while it was covered in small knives. She wanted to yelp, but instead she clenched her teeth and gripped onto the arm rests till her fingers where white and stiff. Once the shoe was off, the pain didn't quite recede, but it felt better than when it was being touched. She let a hissing breath escape between her teeth as she relaxed again. "Sorry about that. Are you okay?"

"As much as I can be about now," she said with a grimace. It was supposed to a smile to cover up how much she was hurting, but she was tired, and her poker-face wasn't what it usually was.

Dipper just rolled his eyes and began to look at her cuts and scratches, assessing how bad they were. He worked his way up, checking over her legs, hands, arms, then moved onto the ones on her face. She had a small graze on her chin, and a decent scratch across her forehead. But what was most concerning, was a bruise that was already pretty dark on her left cheek. At the darkest part, he could just make out a mark or imprint of some kind. It looked like a zig-zag inside a circle. No, hold on... it was a 'Z'. No, to wide. It was an 'N'. A backwards capital 'N', like someone had forgotten to invert the letter on a stamp. His eyes narrowed when the darker option entered his mind. It was like someone had backhanded her while wearing a ring with an 'N' embossed into it. 'N' for Northwest. Her father. Preston Northwest had been wearing a ring like that on the middle finger of his left hand.

"What?" Pacifica demanded, snapping him out of his thoughts.

"What?" Oh, nothing. I'm going to go get that ice. I'll be back in a moment, okay."

"Yeah, okay. Whatever." She rolled her eyes, almost looking embarrassed to be there. More than likely though, he had the feeling it was more than just her being superficial.

He gave her a nod, then went into the kitchen to get what he needed. Grunkle Stan was in there, sculling back a glass of water... or at least, he assumed it was water. He couldn't smell alcohol, so that was a good sign. As he went into the draws and grabbed a few tea towels, he steadied his resolve, then turned to face his uncle.

"Ah, Gunkle Stan?"

"Mmm?" he grunted.

"Would it be alright if Pacifica stayed here a while?"

"Doesn't she have anywhere else?"

"Uh, no. Not really."

"Ugh! Alright, then."

Dipper was prepared to argue, but was taken aback when he registered Stan's reply. "Wait, that's it? You're not going to argue me on this? Not going to kick her out of the house because she's a Northwest? Or send her home?"

Stan turned to face him. "Dipper. I may not like the Northwests in the slightest, and that includes Pacifica. But I would never send a runaway home, especially when they have their father's ring imprinted into their face."

"Oh, you noticed that, huh."

"Only an idiot wouldn't notice that. I mean, saying that she came here to visit you at 4am, a big bag over her shoulder? She can stay here as long as she needs. But I'm not helping her up those bloody stairs. I have trouble enough myself!"

Dipper ginned, knowing that Stan was just trying to maintain his grouchy front. "Thanks, Grunkle Stan."

"Yeah, whatever. Just don't be too much of a bother! You and you're sister are hard enough to deal with."

"Aww, come on. You know you love us," he teased as he grabbed the ice and a glass of water. Stan said nothing in reply as Dipper left the room chuckling.

When he went back into the lounge, Pacifica looked up away from the TV. She had a confused look on her face.

"What even is this movie?"

He just shrugged. "I don't really know. We just sometimes catch Gunkle Stan watching it. He pretends he doesn't, though."

"Seriously?" she said. He had to be joking.

"Yep. He loves it. It's... really weird, actually. Now come on, let's get you sorted." He moved down over to her ankle and pulled bandages out of his kit. "This may hurt a bit." She gave him a firm nod, ready for him to do it, and then again she gritted her teeth as he wrapped the strips of gauze around. It really hurt having it bound up, but somehow it felt a little better being held into that position. Then he placed the ice pack around it. She tensed up, it was _so _cold! She knew it would help, but holy crap! "There, better?"

"Kinda."

"Welp, that's better than a no. Let's move onto the cuts and bruises."

He grabbed a small red tube from his kit, a glass of water, and a cloth. He started by dipping the cloth in the water, and gently dabbing at some of the scratches. Thankfully, she had less than she had thought. But she'd been right about the cut on her leg. Turns out that it was just above her knee, and blood had run all the way down to her ankle.

"Because this isn't embarrassing or anything," she muttered as he worked.

"Huh?"

"Ugh, nothing. Just... I'm sitting here, injured and useless, and you of all people are cleaning me up."

He smiled grimly. "I know what you mean. But hey, it could have been worse."

"Really? How?" she said doubtfully.

"Well, that monster out there could have gotten you."

"Oh... Yeah. I suppose there's that."

"Do you have any idea what it was?"

"Nope."

"What did it look like? And sound like?"

Instantly Pacifica began to look uncomfortable. "Umm, I didn't see it, but it sounded like... well, it sounded like my parents. Like they were calling out to me. But I knew it couldn't be them, so I ran. Oh, and I ran into these... little guys with pointy hats. They all seemed petrified of it. One of them said it was going to eat me. But, it sounded just like them. I mean, what sort of creature can do that?"

"I don't know. I'd have to check the-"

"Ow!"

"Sorry!" He'd started applying the ointment to the bruise on her cheek and must have pressed a bit too hard. "This is a really nasty bruise."

"Ha," she chuckled nervously. "Yeah, got hit by a branch."

"Well, that branch is an asshole," he said shortly, moving on to the scratch. "Most of these scratches are shallow, but some are going to need a plaster."

Just then they heard movement from the door way. They both looked up to see a sleepy Mabel rubbing at her eyes. She was wearing an oversized shirt with a floppy disk on the front, and she was dragging a stuffed toy by the leg. That pig of hers was snuffling around at her feet. She blinked when she saw the scene before her.

"Huh... Pacifica?"

Pacifica looked at Dipper with a raised eyebrow. He just shrugged in reply. She was only being sarcastic when she'd asked if everyone in his family were going to react like that. "Hi Mabel," she said.

"What are you doing here? What happened to you?!" the girl cried.

"Pacifica ran away from home. She's staying with us for a while," Dipper told her.

"Wait, I am?"

"Yep. Grunkle Stan says it's okay."

"Yay!" Mabel whooped, then a confused look came across her face. "But that doesn't explain why you're all bet up."

"I was chased by something in the forest. Fell down a few times. Branches are not kind."

"If all that's from nature, then why does the bruise on your cheek have an 'N' on it?"

"What?!" she cried, bringing up a hand to cover the bruise and winced when it made contact.

Dipper sighed in exasperation. "Subtle, Mabel. Very subtle."

"What? You noticed too?" she squeaked, stating to sound a little downtrodden. "Is it really that bad?"

"No! No," he soothed. "Well, the bruise is. You can only really notice the 'N' if you look. It will be gone in no time."

"So... when you said that the branch was an asshole just before... You knew..." He grimaced and nodded. She hung her head.

"Hey, Mabel," he said. "We're going to need a special plaster."

"I'm on it!" she called.

Pacifica looked up at him a little perplexed. "Special plaster?

"Mabel likes her special plasters. "Most of these are shallow enough that I've fixed them up with liquid plaster. But the one on your knee's going to need something better."

"I got it!" Mabel said, standing triumphantly with a bright looking strip of paper held up in the air. "I got the perfect one." She took the seal wrapping off it to reveal the brightly coloured plaster, then took off the tabs and put it over the freshly cleaned cut on her knee. "Here you earned this."

She looked down to see what the plaster was. It reminded her of Mabel's stickers, really. It was bright purple, and had the words 'You're Ext-ROAR-dinary' written across it. It was also decorated with a couple of lion faces.

"H-how did I earn this?"

"Because of last night at the party. You were amazing and brave. Just like a lion."

"Trust me, I wasn't brave. I mean, maybe for that moment, yeah, but... I nearly had a panic attack on the dance floor when I saw how many people had left."

"You mean when you were dancing with Dipper," Mabel said, raising her eyebrows a few times suggestively.

"Shut up, Mabel," he said. "Look, Pacifica, I get why you don't feel brave. And that is seriously understandable. Your parents aren't nice people, I mean, look at the way they treat you. But you stood up to them. And even even if it was just a little bit, that was something. And it was something to be proud of."

She gave him a watery smile, but yet again, it faded and she looked at her lap. "I ran away," she said. "That's not brave. I wrote them a letter telling them I couldn't live their toxic life anymore, and I ran away. I'm not brave. And I don't know what I'm doing."

"Hey, it's okay," Dipper told her. "We'll help you figure it out."

"Hey, you know what this calls for?" Mabel said.

"Hot chocolate?" her brother guessed.

"Hot chocolate. I'll go make some. Ooh! And tomorrow I'll show you the art of using mixed tapes to get over your feelings!" And with that, the quirky girl ran out of the room.

Despite how horrible Pacifica was feeling, a warm sensation began to spread through her and another faint smile lit up her face. She was getting more care here than she ever had at home. Despite their differences, the twins really seemed to care for her. They cared about how she felt and how she was treated... She'd never known anyone like that before. And it was even more meaningful due to the fact that she'd treated them like shit... a lot. And yet still they wanted to help her. They cared.

Perhaps staying with the Pines wasn't such a bad idea after all.

.

.

.

* * *

**_Voilà_**_**! Lots of cuteness coming up. That mix tape, yeah, I'm actually working on it. Making a nice long list of songs. So if you know any songs that fit her situation, or would make her feel better, feel free to suggest some.**_

_**Also, I'm starting a guessing game? Who can guess the monster? So far there are a few small hints. I'm going to let people guess at what it is every chapter till I reveal it. (I'll think of a prize for those who guess correctly).**_

_**May take a little longer on the update next time, but hopefully I'll get it out soon. Ciao for now!**_


	4. Cuddles and Potential Blackmail

_**Hello all again!**_

_**Thank you all for the WONDERFUL reviews. There have been some really amazing guesses so far. And some pretty unique ones. Well done!**_

_**Well, all I have to say about this chapter is that it is pure fluff. Every bit of it. So, I hope you enjoy it!**_

* * *

.

.

.

**Cuddles and Potential Blackmail**

.

.

"Hey, Dipper?" Mabel called out from the kitchen.

"Yeah?" he called back.

"Code Fluffy?"

He looked at Pacifica, staring at her like he was trying to decide something. "Do you want to sleep?" he asked her. Pacifica shrugged in response. "Code Fluffy!" he shouted.

"Okay, you're getting the blankets!"

"I know!" He turned back to Pacifica. "We're going to have to try and get you upstairs." She groaned at the prospect. There was no way she was going to be able to get up a flight of stairs. "It's okay. You won't even have to put any weight on your foot at all. I'll help you."

"No offence, but I saw your stairs on the way in and they look tiny."

"Yeah, they are a bit... Why would that be offensive?"

"Ah... because I kind of think that everything in this house is tiny and dirty."

"Pfft!" he snorted. "That's because you live in a mansion. And because this place is really old and inhabited by an old man who doesn't know the meaning of the word 'clean'. Now come here, you snob."

She glared at him for that, but it wasn't as sharp as her usual one, she noticed that his tone seemed teasing. Like... in a nice way, not a nasty way. The way that friends teased each other. The idea of Dipper seeing her as a friend kind of made her feel... warm.

Smiling slightly, she gingerly lifted her foot off the scull table and rested it on the ground. Dipper grabbed her bag and hoisted it onto his back, then offered her a hand. Once he'd helped her to her feet, he stood on the side of her bad foot and ducked his head so that she could put an arm around his shoulder. Even though he was stooped down, she still found that he was a bit tall. She knew that by the end of this, he was going to be as sore as she was... well, almost.

"Ready?" he asked.

"Yeah, I guess."

Slowly they began walking, Dipper going as slow and steady as she could, acting as her crutch. She hobbled along beside him, glad that she didn't have to put any weight on her foot. The hopping was already starting to get to her, her feet already sore from running. And she was sure she was putting most of her weight on Dipper. She turned to apologise or something for it, then noticed that he was still practically at her eye level. "Are you still crouching?" she asked incredulously.

"Well, yeah, you're short."

"Hey!"

He chuckled. "Relax. Why do the really short ones always get so worked up? Height's no big deal I mean, I'm short for my age. Even Mabel's taller than me."

"Seriously?"

"Yep. Well, only by a millimetre, but that's enough for her to claim she's the alpha twin. Doesn't help that she's out going and older than me by five minutes... I'm just crossing my fingers for another growth spurt soon." She suddenly realised that they'd been standing still since she'd noticed him stooping, and she realised why. They were standing at the base of the stairs. She bit her lip, looking up at the rickety staircase in apprehension. "Hey, it's okay, you can do this," he told her. "You've got me and the rail. You'll just have to kind of jump I guess."

She gave him a determined nod and they started up. She relied on Dipper and the rail quite heavily, putting all her weight on them and swinging her way up. They almost fell down a few times, and her arms and leg were horribly tired by the time they got to the top. She felt a bit sorry for Dipper, but he just grinned at her.

"You made it!" he celebrated.

"Your room is way too high up."

He raised an eyebrow. "Your room is on the fourth floor of your house."

"Your room is the attic! That's the top of your house!"

"That's not- You know what, never mind. The attic is the best place anyway, apart from maybe Soos's break room. We'll see if he's willing to give it up while you're here. But for tonight it looks like we're having a sleepover in the attic. Now come on, we have to get set up.

"For what? What's Code Fluffy?"

"It's love in a blanket!" Mabel said, skipping up behind them with a tray of hot-drinks and other sweet snacks. She went off ahead of them and they slowly made their way along behind them. It was a good thing that Stan was still up, or all the thumping would have woken him.

"It's our method of making each other feel better," he explained further as he helped her along to the room. "Our favourite advice is to get a nice drink, some snacks, bundle up in blankets, cuddle something fluffy, and watch a feel good movie. So if either of us are upset or not feeling great, we'll call a Code Fluffy." As he was saying this, he led her over to a bed and helped sit her down on it.

"Dipper calls them the most. He gets panic attacks," Mabel said casually.

"Mabel!"

"What?"

"That actually sounds really nice," she said, stopping them from arguing further.

"It is. And it really works. Of course, it works better with other people. It relaxes you and makes you happier because when you hug someone it releases serotonin, dopamine, and oxytocin, which-"

"Alright, alright, nerd," Mabel said. "Just go get the blankets, would ya!" Dipper huffed out a sigh, rolled his eyes, and left the room mumbling under his breath. "Right, down to business," she said matter of factly. She bounced over to the other bed and picked up a pile of stuffed toys from it. "What one do you want?"

Pacifica blinked at the line up before her in bewilderment. She hadn't cuddled a stuffed toy since she was six. Her mom had thought they were too childish after that. "Um... the... rabbit, I guess."

"Done. Her name is Daisy." She handed the white rabbit over to her, a purple felt flower had been stitched on just above one of the ears. Then she began to pick out a few more. "Dipper usually likes Mr Bearington. I'll take Kitty Snufflepants today. And Waddles can have Widdles!"

"Widdles?"

"Yeah!" she cried in delight, holding up a stuffed pig. "He's like Waddles, but he's 'widdle'! Dipper won him for me in a crane game."

"Oh, okay." She didn't understand why the pig needed its own toy, but whatever floated the strange girl's boat. She and her brother were being way too nice to her for her to care.

Quickly she she made the decision to divest herself of any uncomfortable clothing while Dipper was out. She unhooked her bra and pulled it out from under her shirt. She also took off her other shoe and sock, but decided that it would be easier to leave her jeans on, rather than painfully struggle to get them off and again struggle to put on her night clothes.

"And now onto the movie," Mabel cried. She went over to the bed Pacifica was sitting on and pulled a laptop from underneath. It had a blue sticker of a pine tree, just like the one on Dipper's hat. It must be his... which would also make this his bed. That made sense considering the toys, glitter, and Sev'ral Timez posters on the other bed. Mabel tapped a few keys, then frowned. "That's weird."

"What?"

"His password's changed."

There came a muffled chuckle and they both turned to see Dipper staggering back into the room under a big pile of blankets and bedrolls. "I was wondering when you were going to notice." He dumped the pile on the ground near the window.

"When did you change it?"

"Like, three weeks ago or so."

"Oh... Well, that's good, I guess. Ooh! Hold on, I bet I can guess the new one..." She sat there a moment, her tongue stuck out in thought. Then her eyes widened, a smile creeping over her face, and she quickly typed something in. It instantly logged her in. "Yes!"

"Aww, damn it."

"How did you _do_ that?" Pacifica asked in amazement.

"It's easy. Dipper's passwords are things he's obsessed with at the time. It wasn't hard to guess 'journal author'. He's been trying to find clues about him since he found that book."

"I really need to think of better passwords."

"At least you change yours. I've the same password for three years now," Pacifica told him.

"I have to change it. I have a Mabel to attempt to protect it from." He fluffed up some pillows and blankets, starting to put together a makeshift bed to fit three.

"Never works," she grinned. "Okay, here's the movies. What do you want to watch. Pick any, Dipper's okay with all of them."

The man in question shrugged. "I'm not picky."

"Really? You'll even watch girly chick flicks?"

"I was raised with Mabel. I'm used to them."

"And he just likes them anyway. He even likes Babba! Oof!" She was knocked over when a pillow hit her square in the head. Dipper grinned smugly.

"Really? Babba's awesome! Have you seen the musical they made that had only their most popular songs? Cheesy as hell to watch, it was good."

"We've never actually been to see any musicals," Mabel told her.

"Well, we'll have to change that. You _have_ to see Wicked! It's not an option."

"Ooh! I've always wanted to do Wicked as like... a play or something!" Mabel said excitedly. "We should totally put on a performance here! I could be Elphaba, and you could be Glinda! You're blonde! And you can hit all the high notes!"

"And your friendship started out about the same," Dipper commented.

"Loathing. Unadulterated loathing..." Pacifica sung, her smile faded. "Yeah, sorry about that."

"Ah, you know how it is. Water and bridges and all that. Maybe something about ducks? I don't know. I think there should be ducks somewhere in that saying."

"You're thinking of 'water under the bridge' and 'water off a duck's back', Mabel. Though, if you mixed them together you'd get a pretty interesting malaphor."

"You mean metaphor."

"No, I mean malahor. The combining of two or more idioms. You know, like 'we'll burn that bridge when we get to it' instead of 'cross that bridge' and 'burning bridges'."

"...You're right, he is a nerd," she said to Mabel.

"Hey!"

"What? I never said it's a bad thing. So what, you're smart."

"Don't encourage him!" Mabel cried. "His head is already big enough. Literally."

"Beats me then. My head is tiny. The only reason I can fit half my hats is because my hair is so thick and boofy! Ooh, hey, how about this?" She turned the screen around to show them her selection.

"Diary of a Princess 2. Heck yeah!"

"Sure. I'm in." He gestured to the blankets. "Also, I've made the bed." To be honest, it looked more like a giant nest of pillows and blankets. They were a little old looking for her liking, but it did look comfy.

"I call middle!" Mabel shouted, scrambling over. She snuggled down under the top layer of blankets, putting the laptop on her lap.

"Here."

Dipper held out his hand to her, and once more he helped her walk over to the bed. He sat her down beside Mabel, and she was able to tuck herself in. It would be a close fit for the three of the of them. She wasn't really sure how she felt about that. She wasn't used to it. At her sleep overs, her friends would all get their own double bed. Dipper grabbed the tray of snacks and sat them down beside her, then he took his place on the other side of his sister. As soon as he was settled in, Waddles came trotting over with the stuffed pig in his mouth. With a soft oink, he plopped himself down with his head resting on Dipper's lap. She passed out the hot chocolates, which were somehow still hot, and took a sip of her own. The top was completely coated in melted marshmallow. It was so sweet, but _really_ good.

"Alright, that's the hot drinks and snacks, the blankets, the fluffy things, and the movie. So, without further ado, let the Code Fluffy commence!" Dramatically she hit the play button and the movie started.

They all smiled and settled back to watch the movie. Pacifica had seen it many times, but it was the kind of movie that you could still watch many times more and still want to watch it again. It was so cute, and Julie Andrews was a goddess!

Their drinks were all gone by the time Mia had intentionally stomped on Nick's foot. But they continued to eat the chocolate and other sweets as the movie went on. Dipper even got up to grab the lollies she'd told him were in her bag. She found herself slowly leaning into Mabel to get a better view. Her eyes were starting to become heavy, and she just gave in, leaning on the girl in something similar to a cuddle. It actually felt... kind of nice. When it got to the scene where the Queen showed Mia her new room, Mabel gasped in wonder, despite how many times she'd already seen it.

"I'm just imagining that that's what your wardrobe is like," she said. "Is that what your wardrobe is like?"

"Pfft! Don't be ridiculous," she told her. "I don't have crown jewels in my wardrobe." Mabel laughed and she smiled in reply. It wasn't quite true, her wardrobe was way smaller than that... though, it was still a rather large walk in wardrobe with mirrors and everything. Still, that was irreverent.

As the movie continued, her eyes grew heavier and heavier. She would catch herself with her eyes closed for too long and jolt herself awake. She finally gave in some time around the engagement slumber party. The last thing she remembered was hearing Julie Andrews and Raven singing together. At one point she was woken up by Mabel laughing at Mia exclaiming that she was a moose, but sleep quickly pulled her back under again. She was exhausted. And this was nice. This was very, very nice...

.

By the time the movie was finished, Mabel was pretty tired. She yawned loudly, giving a stretch. It was a little awkward with the other two leaning on her so heavily. She looked at her brother and new friend to find that they were both asleep. Waddles looked up at her and gave a soft oink.

"Yep, they're totally out to it," she whispered to him. "Come on, lets get to bed."

Carefully, she extracted herself from between the two of them. She closed the laptop and put it back under Dippers bed, and cleared away all cups and rubbish. She considered waking up Dipper to get him back in his own bed but decided against it. She knew how hard it was to wake him up, and how he'd react. And considering the fact he'd only just fallen sleep, it was probably best to let him sleep.

Waddles oinked again. "What? It's not like they're cuddling or anything. They're on opposite sides of the nest! They can complain about it in the morning. I'm too tired to deal with Dipper."

She shuffled over to the lights and flicked them off, before going back over to her bed and curling in. She held on to Kitty Snufflepants, and not long after, Waddles jumped up to his usual spot on the bed. Soon, she was as fast asleep as the other two.

* * *

.oOo.

* * *

Mabel groaned as sunlight shone in her face, dragging her out of her wonderful slumber.

"Ugh, stupid sun!" she grumbled. She rolled over, having to push Waddles back on the other side of the bed so she didn't fall off, and looked at the clock. 11am. Geez, she'd slept in! Well, she had been up to like, 6am so it wasn't that bad really.

Yawning, she jumped out of bed and started gathering her clothes for the day. She was confused by Dippers empty bed for a moment until she remembered that she'd left him down on the floor last night. She looked over towards the nest and had to stifle a giggle.

Lying curled up in the middle of the nest of pillows, Dipper and Pacifica were snuggled up to each other. Their teddies had been abandoned at some time in the night, as had half the blankets. One of Dippers arms was cushioning Pacifica's head, his other was wrapped around her waist. Pacifica seemed even more tangled up than he was. One of her arms was stretched up above his head, her fingers twisted in his curls, the other arm was flung over the arm that was holding her, and her leg had hooked itself up over his waist.

Huh. Who knew that they were both cuddlers. They... actually looked... kind of cute.

Silently she grabbed her phone and took a picture of them. "Hehe," she giggled. "Blackmail."

Then quietly as she could, she snuck out. Those two deserved their sleep.

.

Pacifica had been drifting in and out of dreams for a while. Strange dreams that she couldn't recall. And she was too tired to remember any of the moments shed woken up either. This time she blinked at the hazy light around her. Morning.

There was something in front of her, a pink and brown blur. And she was holding onto something. What was that strange shape in front of her? She blinked a few more times, trying to focus.

"Dipper?" she mumbled.

"Mmm," he replied, still half asleep.

"No, dipper. On your head." Lazily, her hand attempted to point, but it didn't really move far before flopping back around his body, her eyes drifting shut again.

"Yeah. Wait, what?" His eyes flew open and he looked about cautiously. No one else was in the room. Just him and Pacifica... cuddling. "Uhh..." He looked back down at the girl in his arms. She seemed to have fallen asleep again.

Hmm... she looked rather cute when she was sleeping. No! No, he was not having any thoughts along those lines when they were cuddling like – like, well, a couple. Nope!

Carefully he began to extract himself from their human tangle, taking her arm from around him and gently placing it in close to her body. She muttered something when he tried to de-tangle their legs, but when he looked up at her, he found she was still asleep.

Once he was free he let out a sigh of relief, then he grabbed his clothes for the day and his hat and went off to have a shower. Erm... he better make that a cold one.

.

.

.

* * *

_**To be honest, I didn't think this much would take up an entire chapter. But oh well, just means there'll be more chapters later.**_

_**Also, Code Fluffy is a real thing for me. I do this often when I feel down, usually watching Disney films and cuddling my partner or best friend. It's always my advice for people who aren't having a good day. And I always get told that it made them feel a little better. So, if you ever feel horrible or anxious, Code Fluffy. It works.**_

_**Also, nests are great. Me and my friend make these outside in summer on my veranda, usually with candles and fairy lights.**_

_**Anyway, that's all for now. I really seem to be flying through this one. The Muse for Gravity Falls is very strong. So I'll probably update again soon!**_

_**Bye!**_


	5. Breakfast and Butlers

_**Helloo!**_

_**Wow, 5 chapters in less than a month. I can literally FEEL the Doctor Who fans getting annoyed at me. I don't know, this fandom is very insistent right now, and the muse is singing something fierce. She's duplicated herself into a choir and is following me around so I can't sleep.**_

_**Anway, without any of my early morning rambles... not much in this chapter, still cute as hell. And to think I'm barely into the plotline.**_

_**But besides the babbling, I bring you beautiful tales of bizarre teens being brilliant... Behold!**_

* * *

.

.

.

**Breakfast and Butlers**

**.**

**.**

When Pacifica awoke, it was the calmest, gentlest waking she could remember. A soft, hazy light was filtering in through the old rustic window, lighting up the dust-motes. Birdsong could be heard faintly in the background, along with the chattering river, swooshing trees, and other sounds of nature. It wasn't an intrusive sound, it was soft. Calming.

She lay there contentedly, letting awareness slowly come to her. Hold on... that wasn't her roof. She sat bolt up right, wincing in pain as her foot moved the wrong way. She was lying on a giant pile of pillows in the Pines twins room. It didn't take long for her to recall the events of last night.

She would have thought that it would shatter the calm, but it didn't. It made her a little sadder, but the room was just as peaceful as before. Maybe it was stopping her from feeling worse. There was just something about the atmosphere that was so tranquil it was hard to feel another way.

Looking around, she saw that her things had been dragged closer to the bed. There was also a crutch that had been painted bright colours and decorated with stickers, and a folded up piece of paper. She grabbed the paper, unfolding it to see that it was a note.

.

_Hey Pacifica!_

_We didn't want to wake you. After last night we thought you would need the rest. But we brought your things closer so you can reach them. Oh! And Grunkle Stan found an old crutch for you to use! It was a little boring so I added a bit of the Mabel Touch. (Dipper didn't think it needed it, so I gave him the Mabel Touch too. Now he's in the shower. Ha!)_

_Oh, speaking of showers, we figured you'd probably want one after all that running around and falling in the dirt last night. It's on the floor below, second door to the left once you get off the stairs. (I drew you a map below). You can use my stuff. Not hard to guess which they are, everything else has 'For Men' all over it. *rolls eyes* Go nuts, take your time. The water should be hot. We'll be in the kitchen when you're done._

_\- Mabel!_

_._

Just below the note was a crudely drawn map of the upper floor of their house. A stick-figure with blonde hair, a rainbow crutch, a bandaged up foot, and way too big of a smile for how she was feeling had been drawn on the stairs from the attic. The entire thing had been done in a pink glitter gel pen.

If Pacifica hadn't witnessed how wise and mature Mabel could be, she would have thought she was mentally stuck at 12. But still, she was too sweet. Too sweet for how she had ever treated her.

Sighing, she put the note in her pocket and grabbed the two other items from the ground. The crutch made it so much easier to get up than if she'd been attempting with out it. She slung the bag over one shoulder, and positioned the crutch under the other. Slowly, she started off on the journey. The bag thumped into her back with every swing, which was rather annoying. And the stairs were a little difficult, but soon she got the hang of it. It was much easier that having to use a guy who was on the higher end of five foot tall.

She ended up finding the bathroom without having to look at Mabel's map again. As soon as she was in, she dumped the bag and looked about. It was about as filthy as – if not more than – the rest of the house. It was a small room with everything in it. A toilet in the corner, a sink and vanity on the wall, and a shower-bath combo. At least the shower head was detachable.

Before she jumped in the shower, she took care of some urgent business. Then she began to peel way the layers of her clothes.

They were covered in dirt and grass stains, and had the faint smell of sweat. Okay, that was gross. Usually when she went running she would change out of her gear as soon as she'd cooled down, then it would go straight in the wash. She had to take off her shorts as carefully as she could, trying not to disturb her ankle. It seemed that jeans shorts weren't the best thing to run away in. The denim was stiff and uncomfortable. It was hard to get off easily, and sleeping in it had left big red imprints in her skin. She had to sit on the toilet seat to get them off properly. She took the bandage from her ankle off too while she was there. It wasn't the sort of thing to go in water.

Holding onto what ever she could, she carefully made her way into the tub. She made sure to put down the bath mat. She was already at risk of falling over _without _a slippery floor. It was a little hard to stand in the tub, but thankfully there was a rail that she could use to hold herself up.

She turned on the water and jolted away. It was freezing cold. She was used to the water warming up in a matter of seconds, but it took a good minute. Then she had to take a further minute to try and get the temperature right, the taps were so temperamental. If she nudged it even the tiniest bit one way it would swing between burning hot and ice cold. Finally, she managed to get it to a temperature she found tolerable. It was slightly hotter than she would have liked, but she had the feeling it was the best she was going to get. And it was a good thing that the shower head was detachable, because the pressure was terrible! It was going to be a mission trying to get the conditioner out of her hair, it was thick enough without the lack of water.

.

She emerged from the shower half an hour later. It was a long shower for her, but it was necessary to rinse off properly. She smelled like Mabel's products, which were... actually really nice. She was a little frustrated by the workings of the shower, but she still felt pretty good, considering it was still a nice hot shower.

Awkwardly, she dried off and attempted to get changed. Thankfully the change of clothes she had with her was a dress. She didn't bother putting the tights on, trying to get her underwear on was annoying enough. She also attempted to re-bandage her ankle, but she wasn't very good at it. She didn't even bother putting on make up today. She wasn't in the mood.

Rummaging through her bag, she found her phones. Both had messages. She checked Murphy's phone first.

'_Have you found a place to stay for the next few weeks?'_

_'Yeah. The Pines are letting me stay with them at the Mystery Shack. They're really nice. =)'_ She replied. Then she checked her other phone, finding four messages from Tiffany and one from Aubrey.

'_So r we gona talk now?'_

_'Paz?'_

_'Hey, u beta not b dead'_

_'If ur dead, im killin you!'_

_'Hey, Paz. Tif said u ran away. Bit stupid. Can u text her? Shes getting worried.'_

Pacifica sighed heavily. She wasn't in the mood for this. She didn't need to be brought down for doing something for herself. For her own mental stability. Still, she couldn't let them panic.

_'Calm down, Tif. I just woke up. Didn't sleep till like 5am. I'm somewhere safe, but not in the mood to talk now. Chat later. Tell Bree I'm ok.'_

She balked when she saw the time. It was almost 1pm!

Finally, she grabbed her things and hobbled out. She decided to leave her bag at the top of the stairs. As she made her way into the kitchen, she was met by a delectable smell and the sight of Mabel at the stove. Dipper was sitting at the table, coffee mug in hand as he flicked through his journal. They both looked up and smiled as she entered.

"Hey, she made it," Dipper teased. "How's the crutch?"

"Much easier," she said, heading over to the table. Quickly Dipper got up and pulled a chair out for her, before sitting back down. "Thanks."

"Do you like the new look?" Mabel asked excitedly.

"It's very pretty, Mabel," she reassured her. It wasn't something she'd normally go for, but it had been painted in a very cool pattern.

"I had to dry it with a hair-dryer so it wasn't wet when you woke up. Also, ta da!" She placed three large plates of pancakes on the table, shuffling one so it was right before her. "We made pancakes! It seemed like a pancakes kind of day. We waited till we heard you turn the shower off. That sounds kind of creepy, but Dipper was keeping an ear out in case you slipped or something."

Since they had been placed down in front of her, Pacifica's eyes hadn't moved from the plate. She heard what Mabel was saying, but something in her seemed to break. Something in her chest felt as if it were melting, and she felt like the world was spinning around her. She was so stunned by everything they were doing for her that it had her frozen in place, her heart beating frantically.

It was like the two were a concentrated bundle of care, and she'd been so horrible to them for so long. She didn't deserve this. She didn't deserve the kindness they were giving her, and yet they gave it to her freely.

She felt the tears well up in her eyes, and before she could stop it, a sob broke through her lips. No, no, no! She didn't want to cry. But she couldn't help it. She was just so overwhelmed. They were just so nice, and the idea that anyone would do all this for her was mind boggling. She was used to being given things all the time. But this was different. They actually _cared_. They...

The twins looked at her in shock, starting to become panicked as they looked at each other. They didn't know what to do, they didn't even know what had set her off. They were just pancakes! They didn't mean to make her cry!

Stan came into the room, paused a moment, taking in the scene before him, then walked right back out.

Pacficia continued to cry, covering her mouth and nose with her hands as she attempted to calm herself down.

"I'm sorry!" Mabel cried. "I didn't meant to..."

"What's wrong?" Dipper asked, completely confused.

"Nothings wrong," she sobbed. "That's just it. You guys are so nice, and kind, and amazing. And you've done all this nice stuff for me. And I treated you like shit. And I don't deserve it, and-" The words came tumbling out of her mouth in a fast passed incoherent babble. She stopped when Mabel suddenly threw her arms around her shoulders and Dipper began to speak.

"Hey, hey. Stop. Breathe..." he tried to sooth her. He waited for her to drag in a trembling breath before he continued. "What you don't deserve is crummy parents, but you have them. Seriously, your father's an asshole. And we're just trying to make you feel a bit better. That's what friends do, right?"

She gave them a watery smile. "Friends?"

"Well, yeah," Mabel said, as if it were obvious. She pulled back slightly. "Wait, you do want to be friends, right?"

"Yeah," she said, wiping her eyes. "Yeah, I'd like that."

"Yay!" Mabel cried, throwing her arms in the air, only to throw them back around her neck again.

"Well, that's good, 'cause- What the _hell_ did you do to your bandage?! Give that thing here." He shuffled his chair closer and held his hands out. She rolled her eyes and put her foot up on his lap and he began to redo the bandages.

"I'm sorry, though," she said. "About the way I treated you and all the things I said."

Now it was Dipper's turn to roll his eyes. "Pacifica, shut up and eat your pancakes."

"No, but seriously. You guys are so nice, and sweet, and fun, an totally not lame at all. Well, maybe a little lame, but-"

"Pancakes."

"But-"

"I think what Dippingsauce is trying to say," Mabel cut in, "is that we forgive you. Now eat your damn pancakes!"

"Okay, okay, I will," she chuckled. She looked at the plate and toppings before her and her face fell to one of confusion. "Um... how do I do the toppings?"

"What do you mean?" Mabel asked. "It's syrup. You just squirt it over the whole thing and go for it."

"How much should I use?"

Dipper snorted. "What, have you never had syrup on your pancakes before, or something?"

She shook her head. "Not really."

"_What_?!" both twins cried aghast.

"When we _do_ have pancakes, we use lemon juice and a fine sprinkling of powdered sugar. Mom doesn't let me have syrup because there's too much sugar in it, and sugar turns into fat and pimples, so..."

"Wait! Are you telling me that your mom limits your sugar?!" Mabel cried in horror.

"Well, yeah. I mean, I'm already fat enough, so-"

"Stop," Dipper said. "You are _not_ fat. You're skinny as anything! Why the hell would you think that?"

Pacifica looked down. "W-well, Mom says that I'm getting fat and need to lose weight."

Dipper scowled. "I hate your family." Her eyes widened in shock at his statement, though she understood why he did. She would hate them too, if she could. "Trust me, you're not fat. The only _large_ part of you is... well, um... you've got..." A blush spread across his cheeks and he gestured vaguely towards her. She raised a questioning eyebrow.

"You've got big boobs," Mabel finished for him. Instantly Pacific's cheeks were just as red as Dipper's. "You've got one of those hourglass-y figures. It looks really pretty."

She smiled weakly. "Thanks, Mabel."

"Okay, done with the ankle," he said. "I know it was just a minor sprain, but we should ice it again, just to be sure."

"Yes Doctor Dipper," she said sarcastically. "Seriously, you're really good at this patching up thing. You really could be a doctor."

"Well, he already has his First Aid licence. He can do CPR and everything. Even reverse CPR." She wagged her eyebrows at him and he glared.

"Shut up, Mabel!" She just laughed at him. "Anyway, I was going to tell you. We talked to Soos this morning. He's more than happy to let you sleep in his break room. It was originally a bedroom, so there's still a bed in there. And it's big, so yeah. You don't have to sleep on the floor again."

"But where's Soos going to go for his break?" Mabel asked. "We can't let him go back to his old one. That things a safety hazard. Literally."

"He said he'd set up in the old wax museum room. Something about talking to Larry King, I don't know." Mabel was just about to say something when she was interrupted by a knock at the door. "I'll get it." He sighed as he stood and walked through to the front of the house. He swung the door open to reveal a man who looked to be in his late 50's, dressed in a fine suit. He seemed very posh, and slightly familiar. "Um, can I help you?" he said uncertainly.

"Is Miss Pacifica here?" the man asked.

Dipper instantly went on alert. They were already looking for her? He couldn't let anyone find her, or they'd take her back to those monsters she called parents. And there was no way in hell he was going to let that happen.

"Pacifica?" he said. "As in Pacifica Northwest? What would she be doing here? Pfft, what would _anyone_ like her be doing here? Have you seen this place?"

"So, Miss Pacifica is _not_ here?"

"Nope. Wrong place, sorry buddy."

"Dipper, wait!" the girl in question's voice rung out. Dipper cringed. Damn it!

"Not here, eh?"

"Heh, um..." He scratched the back of his neck sheepishly.

He became aware of the sound of Pacifica hobbling over on her crutch. "That's Murphy. He helped me escape last night." She got to the door and gave her butler a wide grin. His eyes widened when he saw the state she was in and he shot her a disapproving look. "What?"

"You said you'd made it somewhere safe. Look at the state you're in! That doesn't look safe to me."

"I said I'd made it somewhere _safe_. As in the place. Getting here, well, I may have tripped a few times..."

Murphy shook his head in exasperation. "I've brought your things, as requested."

"Thanks, Murphy."

"Things?" Dipper questioned.

"Yeah. I packed some bags last night and asked Murphy to drop them to me when I'd found somewhere to stay. I mean, did you really think I only took a tiny bag to run away? I need at least two weeks to let things settle down, two outfits is not going to last that long."

"Fair point," he conceded. "Um, want some help? I can show you to the room she's staying in?"

"That would be most helpful, Mr Pines." With a nod, Dipper followed him over to a posh car where the butler proceeded to pull out five large suitcases.

"Two weeks, huh?" he said in awe. "Sure you're not planning on staying for a year? I brought less with me to cover three months!"

"You can never be too prepared!" she called from back at the door way.

He rolled his eyes and picked up two of the bags. He watched in amazement as Murphy picked up the other three as if it were no issue "Whoa, alright then, this way." Dragging the heavy bags with him, he led the man into the house and round the corner to where her room must be.

"I don't know why he's surprised by how many bags you have," Mabel said, her mouth half full of pancake. "This _is_ you we're talking about."

"What's that supposed to mean?" She put her free hand on her hip.

"You have lots of pretty clothes. I'd bring that many bags if I had clothes like yours."

"Oh, um, thanks."

"No problem. I mean, I have an entire case of just sweaters. By the time summer's over, I'll probably need another bag."

"Why's that?"

"Because I've made so much since I got here."

"Wait, you _made_ all those yourself?"

"Yep! Well, apart from the one with a shooting star on it. Dipper got me that one for our birthday last year."

She smiled at that. "It must be weird sharing a birthday."

"Nah, it's great!"

"Honestly, you two work so well together. I mean, you're so different, but you're completely in sync. I can't even imagine having a sibling, let alone a twin."

"Well, all your bags are in your room, Pacifica," Dipper said, walking back in before Mabel could say anything else. She was starting to look a little put out by all the interruptions.

"And now I must head back," Murphy said. "Your parents will be expecting me for other duties."

"Yeah, I know," she said, slightly sad that he was going already. It was then that Stan decided to come back. He frowned seeing the man at his door.

"Hey, you," he called. "Gift shop is around the other side of the shack."

"Grunkle Stan, he's Pacifica's butler. He's dropping her things off," Dipper explained.

"Oh... fine then. Does that mean we get a butler while she's here?"

Mabel laughed. "No, he has to go back."

"Damn."

"Oh, and Pacifica," Murphy said, "I would recommend turning off your phone and taking the sim card out soon so that your parents can't trace it."

At that Stan let out a harsh laugh. "Tracing phones? No need to worry about that. Nothing can be traced in a fifty yard radius of the shack. It would take one hell of a strong signal to break through that."

Murphy looked at Stan out of the corner of his eye, then bent down so only Pacifica could hear him "Are you sure you trust these people?"

"Yeah." She gave him a wide grin. "I mean, Mr Pines seems nice so far. And Dipper and Mabel are great. They've been taking care of me. And Mabel painted up this crutch." He rose a sceptical eyebrow. "Trust me. I'm going to be fine here."

.

.

.

* * *

_**I wonder if she has considered the saying 'famous last words'.**_

_**Doing the title for this was fun. I love alliteration. And I kept thinking of more. Breakfast, butler, banter, befuddlement, bawling, backing-away, bliss, bedazzled, bathroom, buddies, befriending, belittled, bequeathing, boobs, beguile, blush, berate, bedroom, breakroom, blonde... um, I could probably go on for an hour with words beginning with B.**_

_**And on that note, bye bye!**_

_**Yzyyormt yfnyormt yzmw lu yzyllmh!**_


	6. Eyeballs and Nightmares

_**Hello again!**_

_**Well, I have some good news. My new laptop has FINALLY been sent off to get the screen fixed. The only down side to that is that I have NO clue how long it will take to get it back. From what I hear it's a pretty decent time.**_

_**I have everything backed up onto a hard drive, and am currently using my old broken piece of craptop. I don't have any of my other fics on it yet, hence why I haven't been updating any of my Doctor Who fics recently.**_

_**Of course, the muse is still running strong with Gravity Falls at the moment. I have started a piece called 'I'll Give You Anything' which is a collection of one shots based off prompts from otpprompts tumbr I also have one called 'Not Yours' based off the image panel 'Deal' by **_**_rikoudu on deviantart_**_**. And to top it all of, this story is officially going to have a sequel AND a spin off, called 'No Place like Home' and 'Dark Side of Home' respectively.**_

_**Looks like I'm in for a LOT of work. Anywho! Enjoy!**_

* * *

.

.

.

**Eyeballs and Nightmares**

.

.

"You're kidding, right?" Pacifica said in disbelief.

"Nope." Dipper flipped through a book with a look of utter boredom.

"You're really serious?"

"Yep." Mabel grabbed an eyeball from a jar, sat down next to her and started bouncing it against the floor and wall, then catching it again.

"Your uncle really makes you work in his shop over the holidays."

"Yeah," said the ginger girl, Wendy. "Well, I'm actually here voluntarily... for money. College is expensive... And I am totally empathising with the wrong person here."

"Hey! I'm not that bad. Just because I have money doesn't mean I don't understand that other people are struggling with it. You forget that my dad likes to hold that over other people."

"Oh, we haven't forgotten. It's kind of hard to."

"Shut it, Pines," she smirked. "I get it. I'm rich. Ha ha."

"Do you think your parents will cut you off or something when they find out you're gone?" Mabel asked.

"They can't." She caught the eyeball Mabel was bouncing when it flew out towards her. She swivelled around and tossed it to her.

"Why not?" She tossed it back.

"My account isn't connected to theirs anymore. They used to be able suspend it so I couldn't use my money. And I couldn't access it either. So one day I got the forms to separate my account and forged their signatures. Got in a heck of a lot of trouble, but now all they can do is stop sending me my allowance." The game of toss seemed to have evolved into bounce and catch. "Which is kind of pointless, because I have enough saved up that I could probably afford to live on my own if I wanted to."

"Then why don't you?" Wendy asked.

"Everyone always talks leaving your family when they're... not all that great. But it's not as easy as it sounds. I mean, if I cut off my family, it's not just Mom and Dad. I'd incur the wrath of my _whole_ family. And I love my gran too much. And I have younger cousins who adore me, and I could never leave them. It's not-" She flinched as a customer entered the gift shop.

"Are you okay?" Wendy asked, confused about what had made her flinch like that.

"What? Yeah, I'm fine." As she had winced, she'd missed the eye ball and it bounced past her. Mabel got up and chased after it.

"So, we can leave in ten minutes. Want help setting your room?"

"I've got a lot of stuff. You sure you're up for the job?"

"More than you are," Mabel said. "I can actually move." Pacifica went to shoot her a glare, but ended up flinching again as a jingling signalled yet another person entering. "What happened? Did you get a splinter? They happen a lot here."

She just grimaced, trying to shrug it off, and Dipper looked over at the door where a bell was still gently rocking above it. The bell. Realisation hit him and he began looking about for their handyman. He spotted Soos near the vending machine and quietly made his way over.

"Hey, Soos, can you do me a favour?"

"Sure, what's up, dude?"

"Well, Pacifica has this thing about bells," he said so that the others couldn't hear them. "Her father used one to kind of control her and she gets, um, jumpy every time she hears it. Could you maybe, like, take it down?"

"Not a problem, dude. I don't think Mr Pines will be too happy, but I know just the thing to replace it. Only, ah, I can't get it till tomorrow."

"That's okay. We're leaving in a few minutes anyway."

"Great. By tomorrow there will be a new not-bell."

"Thanks, man."

"Hey, it's no problem, bro. It's real sweet how you two are looking after Pacifica."

"Yeah, well, she needs it right now."

"Hey, Dipper!" Mabel called. "Pacifica and me are going to sort out her room. Can you stay the last few minutes and cover in case Grunkle Stan comes?"

"Yeah, sure."

"Yes! Come on!" She helped Pacifica to her feet before dashing out ahead. Pacifica was still slowly making her way out when she popped her head back through the door. "Oh, your room's this way. I should probably wait for you, shouldn't I?"

"That would be nice, yeah," Pacifica said sarcastically. Mabel slowed down and waited – somewhat – patently for her to catch up before walking beside her and showing her the way to the room. Of course, Mabel was still impatient enough that as soon as the room was in view she charged ahead.

She was glad that her room was only on the second floor. Sure, the stairs were still horrible, but at least there were less of them. When she got there, Mabel was sitting on the bed, tossing the eyeball between her hands. Her bags were nicely stacked in the corner, and she saw that Murphy had even brought some fresh bedding and her favourite purple pillow. There was already a lot of things in this room, looking old and unused, like someone had left a whole bunch of stuff behind. There was a single bed in one corner, and along one wall there was a set of low filing cabinets.

"Who's is all this stuff?" she said, flipping through a calendar that hadn't been changed since July 1982.

"Don't know. It was all in here when we found this room."

"Found it?"

"Yeah, this room was sealed off, hidden by a bookshelf."

"Why on earth would it be hidden? This is your uncle's house isn't it? Should you trust a secret room? I found one in my house the other night and it was full of things that my family had been coving up for decades. This room wasn't hiding anything, was it?"

"Well, there _was_ a carpet that body-swapped people with static electricity, but that's gone now. It wasn't really being hidden, and I don't think Grunkle Stan even knew about it. Besides, this hasn't been the first hidden room we've found. Once Stan locked a bunch of wax figures in the other room and wallpapered over the door. And he didn't even know that the wax figures could come to life at night and were planning on killing him!" Pacifica blinked in shock and confusion. "We don't really know why he does anything. It's best not to question these things."

She rose an eyebrow. "That sounds like the sort of thing you _should_ question." She sat down net to her bags.

"Well, we used to," Mabel went on. "But he always changed the subject or gave a lame answer. We just kind of gave up after a while. I mean, it kind of makes sense. He's a bit of a dodgy person, but we trust him. He's our Grunkle."

"Um. How 'dodgy'?"

"Oh, you know, smuggling, money forgery, tax fraud. Just little things like that."

"...Right," she said, stretching the word out. Mabel did know that those weren't 'little things', right? In fact, just one of them were enough to get him put away for a very long time. Shaking her head and wondering what she'd gotten herself into by coming here, she opened one of the bags and began to sort things.

"Hey, how about you chuck me stuff and I'll put it away for you? That way you don't have to move about."

"Great, you can start with this." She bundled up the duvet and threw it at her. Mabel managed to half catch it, part of it landing in her arms and the rest falling over top of her. She pulled it off of her head just in time to get hit by a flying purple pillow.

"Oof! Hey!"

"Now this looks like fun," Dipper quipped, entering the room. "Got another pillow?"

"Alas, I am all out," she said dramatically. "Though, I do have a make up box if you want." From the bag she pulled out a metal case that took up most of the space, from the way it clattered, he could tell that it was _very_ full.

"Um, I think I'll pass. Don't get me wrong, I love throwing things at my sister, but that may be going a little overboard."

"Suit your self, Mabel, catch!" She went to toss it, but thought better of it.

"I'm open," Mabel said, her arms outstretched. "...What's wrong."

"Well, I don't really want to throw it. This has a few thousand dollars worth of make up in it and I don't want to ruin any. I could smash the mirrors, or break up the pigments in the palates."

"A few thousand?! How the hell can you have that much make up!"

She scowled at him, knowing exactly what he was thinking. "Hey! Make up is flipping expensive, okay! Especially special effects make up! ...What? I kind of want to be a make up artist. It's fun. It's like having art on your face. I always look the best on Summerween. Last time I went as Le Muerte from 'El Libro de la Vida'."

"Ooh! We can have makeovers!" Mabel squealed.

"Here," Dipper said, rolling his eyes and grabbing the case from her. "Where do you want me to put it?"

"Um, just beside the bed. Like, in between the draws and the side table."

He placed it down where she asked and came back for another item. When Mabel was done making the bed for her, she joined in. They worked this way for a while, with Pacifica sorting her things and telling the twins where to put them. They laughed and joked the entire time, mostly making jokes about her being a pampered rich girl. But she didn't mind it so much. They were right after all.

As they stored things away, they came across a lot more things that had been left behind. Draws had been half cleaned out, boxes were in the bottom of the closet along with a few coats. But eventually, by the time it was dark, they had managed to find homes for practically everything in all five of her bags. Most of it had been clothes, after all.

"Whew, that look longer than I thought," Dipper said. "I'll say it again, this is _not_ two weeks worth of stuff."

"Says the guy who's been wearing the same shirt four days in a row," she muttered. "I prefer to wear something new and clean everyday."

"Yeah, clean and expensive."

"Hey, you would have expensive clothes if you had the money, and don't even _try_ to deny it."

Scoffing, he walked over and helped her to her feet. "Nope. I honestly can't justify spending more than ten dollars on a shirt."

"That's because you can't conceive having enough money to not care that it's more than ten dollars. And because you're a guy."

"What's that got to do with anything?"

"Because girls clothes are _really_ expensive, doi!" Mabel said, whacking him upside the head as she passed by out into the hall. "If I had money, I'd get a human sized hamster ball!"

"And a life time supply of wool?" she guessed.

"Oh, yes! That too!" She just laughed as the girl excitedly ran for the stairs.

* * *

.oOo.

* * *

Not long later, they were down in the living room eating dinner. Each person was sitting down with a box of fries and a hotdog, laughing at reruns of Ker-Prank'd. It seemed so surreal to her. Back at home, food was only to be eaten at the dining table. There wasn't even a TV in the dining room because watching TV while you ate was unthinkable. She decided that she liked this a lot better. It seemed closer, less awkward.

Stan was sitting on the couch, and the three teens were all sitting on the ground, Pacifica resting her back against the scull table. Suddenly another sound rose up.

_Duuun-dun_.

At first they looked at the TV in confusion, but the tune didn't seem to be part of the show.

_Duuun-dun_.

They looked about for the sound. Pacifica was sitting there, stiff as a board and suddenly very pale.

_Dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun. BOM! BOM!_

"Is that... Shark Jaws?" Dipper said in confusion.

_Dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun. _

"What? Is something after us?" Mabel said, looking about for the source of the sound still. "Is it a shark?"

_Doo-dedoo-doo-dedoo-dede_

"No," Pacifica gulped. "It's my parents."

_Doo-dede-doo-dededoo!_

"Ahh!" they all screamed.

She took the phone out of her pocket, looking at the caller ID in fear. The others were all looking at it just as terrified, though probably for a different reason. The ring tone started to repeat, but only got past the first few notes before the call ended.

"Who the hell has ring tone like that? You trying to scare the crap out of everybody?" Stan said, his hand pressed to his heart. She was about to tell him that Aubrey had changed the ringtone as a joke, but was distracted by a text alert.

'_Pacifica Elise! Answer your phone this instant!'_ was what her father had sent.

The pone began ringing again. She just stared at the phone in terror. She gripped it so hard that her knuckles started turning white. Her stomach churned with many different kinds of fears. Indecision had her frozen in place. If she answered, she'd have to talk to her parents, and she knew how that would go. But what if she didn't? If she didn't do what they wanted something worse would happen. The phone stopped ringing and bleeped again.

'_Get your ass home right now, you selfish bitch. Your mother is panicked sick. You are our child and you belong under our roof. Pick up your phone!'_

Her hands began to tremble, her breathing shaky. Her heart hammered in her chest, only to beat harder when the ring tone started up again. She was shocked when the phone was taken from her hands. She looked over to see Dipper with it.

"No! Don't!"

"Don't worry, I'm not going to answer it," he calmed her. He pressed the top button down till the ringing stopped and the light went off. "There. It's off. Now they can't bother you. You have the other one, you don't have to turn this one on for as long as you want. You don't have to deal with them, okay. That's the reason why you left."

She nodded numbly and he handed her back the phone. "I'd like to go to bed now, please."

"What?! But it's only 9:30!" Mabel cried.

"Yeah, sure," Dipper said softly, ignoring his sister. "Need any help?"

"I-I got it." She gave him a weak smile as she hoisted herself up. "Night."

"Night," the three of them chorused.

.

She hobbled her way upstairs once more. It seemed to be getting easier the more she did it. Once she was in her room, she got changed into the pajamas she'd left at the end of the bed. The purple camo top was easy to put on, though she struggled a little with the pink silk boxer shorts that were covered in purple and blue flowers. She had a nightdress, but she was a sucker for favourite outfits. She was about to remove her make up when she remembered she hadn't put any on today. So instead she divided her hair in half and plated each half into lose plated pigtails that hung over her shoulders. Then she went and turned the light off.

It was when she was climbing into the bed that she noticed for the first time that there was something else on it. Picking up the fluffy object, she took a closer look to see Daisy the Rabbit. This brought a smile to her face. Mabel must have put it there at some point.

She snuggled in. The bed was small and uncomfortable, but having her own sheets made her feel a little better. At least they were soft, even if the bed wasn't. It may have been a mistake going to sleep that early. She wasn't tired yet, and it gave her mind time to fret over things she'd rather not think about.

Grabbing her new phone from the bed side table, she began to check it out. She'd put Tiffany and Aubrey's numbers in there, but was yet to actually message them. And Mabel and Dipper had put their own numbers in when they were unpacking the room. Along with the numbers of Stan, Soos, and Wendy. She had no idea why she'd need the numbers, but she kept them anyway. There wasn't an actual reason to delete them other than spite, which she didn't really hold any.

She hadn't checked any social media since the other day and really wanted to, only she didn't know the wifi password... or if Stan even had wifi. A lot of the stuff in the shack looked really old. In the end she went to her apps and looked through them, trying each one out. She ended up playing a snake game for an hour, and a block puzzle game for another half hour. And eventually her eyelids began to grow heavy.

Soon, she was asleep, the phone still beside her on the pillow.

* * *

.oOo.

* * *

_The waters were still and calm. All was silent. Back by the cliffs, water plunged down into the lake, but still not a sound could be heard. Not the water, not the trees, not the birds, or the wind. All was silent._

_The forest was silent. The trees that reached up into the sky swayed, still without a sound. The trees grew all around her. They grew up from the ground, their branches grasping as though desperate to escape. They continued to rise up all around her, their mouths open in horror and, eyes blank and lifeless._

_Not trees._

_People._

_People frozen into wood._

_It wasn't just the party guests this time. It was everyone. Everyone in the entire town. They were all dead. She felt sick._

"_You could have stopped this," Dipper hissed. He ripped his wooden legs away from their roots and stormed towards her, an angry scowl on his face._

"_We tried to give you a chance," Mabel said, joining her brother, "but you'll never change."_

"_I was right. You're just another link in the world's worst chain."_

"_And you can't even be that." Her father stood before her, wooden like all the others. "A link in the chain. The weak link. Too weak to be a Northwest."_

"_Trying to be nice to us. Trying to change. You're just lying. Lying to us and lying to yourself," Dipper sneered. "And one day you're going to drown in those lies."_

"_Or a better idea. Why don't you just drown now."_

_Dipper and her father grabbed her by the shoulder and pushed her down. Suddenly she was in the lake. She was under the water, being held down. She tried to escape, tried to scream, but they clung to her. Their wooden hands dug into her like claws. They dragged her down and they all sunk deeper into the dark waters._

_She thrashed._

_She screamed._

_She watched the bubbles rise._

_She looked into the white eyes of her attackers._

"_You're ours now, Pacifica!"_

"_Pacifica!"_

"_Pacifica!"_

_._

"Pacifica!"

"Ahhhh!" she bolted upright, struggling against the hands that held her.

"Ow! Ow! Stop! Pacifica, calm down! It was just a nightmare!"

She paused a moment and actually looked. She wasn't drowning in the lake. She was in a dark room. The moon shone through the window like a large white eye, illuminating a figure before her. Dipper. A Dipper that was real and soft and warm and most certainly not wood. And also shirtless.

"D-Dipper?"

"Yeah. You okay? Seemed like some nightmare."

When she spoke, her voice trebled. "Everyone was wood again and I w-was drowning, and-"

"Hey, hey. It's okay. It's over. It wasn't real."

"Yes it was." She summoned a little more courage knowing that it wasn't happening now, her voice becoming stronger. "It happened just the other night. Everyone turned to wood, Dipper, even you. And that was my fault."

"No it wasn't. You saved us. You saved everyone. You are not your family. Don't ever forget that. Got it?"

She nodded. His words were such a contrast to his words in her dream, and it made her feel... good. It made her feel really good. And so did his nice warm hands still holding her shoulders. She could feel the heat radiating off him, he was so close...

Oh, she hadn't realised how close he was. He was sitting on her bed, so near to her that if she only leaned forwards just a little bit she could snuggle into his warm chest...

She sat back, blushing. "S-sorry I woke you."

"Nah, it's fine. I was, ah, up and about anyway." He rubbed at the back of his head almost nervously.

"Oh, that's... good. Um, thanks for waking me up."

"No problem. Are you alright now? I should probably go tell Mabel that you weren't being murdered or anything."

She blushed deeper. She hadn't realised she made that much noise. It had been a long time since she'd had a nightmare of any sort.

"No, I'm fine now."

"Okay. Night."

"Night."

He left the room, closing the door behind him. Pacifica snuggled down into her bed again. This time it didn't take very long for her to drift off to sleep. And this time when she dreamt, it was much different to the last time. It was a very nice dream. Though it still included a certain boy with warm brown eyes, a little bit of stubble, and no shirt. Her eyes snapped open again.

"Oh no."

.

.

.

* * *

_**Hehe! Yes! You all know what she means.**_

_**Yet another long chapter. I wasn't kidding when I said I have a lot of work in store. Let me put it to you this way. Usually I do 5 pages per chapter, most of the chapters in this fic are 6 – 8 pages. So far with everything I've written (including notes) the document is 46 pages. This is the 6th chapter of the fic and is only on the second day... the planned timeline for the fic takes 3 weeks.**_

_**So yeah... a LOT of writing to go. Oh well. I enjoy it, and I hope you do to.**_

_**Till next time!**_


	7. Not-Bells and Pianos

_**Hello! This one took a little bit in comparison, didn't it? But to be fair, it's a long chapter. Plus one of my best friends got me back into roleplaying, so I've spent all week updating my blogs. I've even adopted Pacifica as a muse. If you roleplay and want to check her out, the url is pacifica-westwood on tumblr. Just a warning though, it is rife with spoilers for this fic.  
**_**Also, just so you know (as you can tell by the chapter title) there will be a song played on piano. The tune that is played is the Gravity falls theme song. I tried recording it, so that's on my Pacifica's tumblr.  
So, enjoy the long chapter!**

* * *

.

.

.

**Not-Bells and Pianos**

.

It was rather quiet in the living room. The twins were sitting on the ground, doing their own thing, and Pacifica was propped up on the couch with her foot up. She was painting her nails while she iced her foot again at Doctor Dipper's insistence.

"Do you ever stop reading that journal?" Pacifica asked, watching as Dipper leafed through the pages. So far she hadn't seen him go a day without looking at it at least once.

"Of course I do," he replied."

"Nope," Mabel said at the same time.

She giggled. "Come on, Dipper, you had to have read it all by now. Probably know it by heart."

"Getting close to it, but I have to keep looking. What if I've missed something? It's happened before. And what if there's something about the other two journals, or the author? I can't miss anything, not if I want to find them." For once he wasn't wearing his hat and he ran his hand through his hair in frustration, lifting up his bangs enough for her to see a certain marking on his head.

"Here he goes again," Mabel Muttered.

"Oh my god, your birthmark is the Big Dipper!" she suddenly cried.

He just looked up at her from his spot on the ground and raised an eyebrow. "Yeah, you knew that."

"No, you said you had a birthmark on your head, not what it was."

"You saw it yesterday, remember? You woke up and pointed it out, then fell back asleep."

She tried to recall what he was talking about, and slowly a vague memory came to her. "Oh yeah." She suddenly went red when she realised that in the memory she was cuddling into him. No. No, that couldn't have happened. Her imagination was still being over-active and silly. Putting her head down, she continued to paint her nails.

After that, they fell back into silence for a while. The only sound in the room was the quiet clacking of Mabel's knitting needles and the Cash Wheel marathon playing in the background. Why were there always so many marathons during the holidays? Finally, she finished off her nails, carefully screwed the brush back on the bottle, and began to blow on them.

"Hey, Sif, can you do my nails when yours a dry?"

"Sure, wh-" She blinked as she properly registered what Mabel had said. "Did you just call me 'Sif'?"

"Yep."

"Please don't ever call me that again. It's so weird!"

"...Congratulations, you've just made sure she'll call you that forever."

"She'll give up eventually."

He peered at her over the top of the journal. "When we were five, she found out what the Ursa Major constellation was."

What did stars have to do with nicknames? Ursa Major was a constellation that looked like a bear and included the asterism- ...the Big Dipper.

"Oh."

"And now everyone calls him Dipper!" Mabel cheered.

"I get called Dipper so much, sometimes I forget my real name..."

"It starts with an M, you dorkface!"

"You know, Tiffany and Aubrey call me 'Paz'."

"Hmm..." She tilted her head side to side, considering the name. "Nope. Don't like it. It sounds weird."

"Sif sounds weird."

"I kind of like it. It makes me think of the Goddess Sif," Dipper commented.

She looked at him, intrigued. "Goddess? ...Continue."

He chuckled. "The Goddess Sif from Norse mythology. Wife of Thor. Originally she was associated with Earth, fertility, family, wedlock, and rowan trees. And she had really pretty golden hair. Once Loki cut it all off and Thor forced him to make her a wig. But thanks to Marble Comics everyone knows her as Lady Sif, one of the mightiest warriors of Asgard."

"Okay, I may be warming up to the name a little."

"Yes! Sif it is!" Mabel said gleefully. "Don't worry. I'm only giving you a nickname because your name is really long. Pa-cif-i-ca. It's a whole four syllables! Sif is easier to say. So it's not like you have a silly name like Ma-"

She ducked as the journal went flying towards her head. It missed and hit the shelf behind her with a resounding thud... a _very_ resounding thud...

"What was that?" she asked the twins.

"Huh?"

"That sound? That did_ not_ sound like a book hitting solid wood." They all looked at the shelf. It was only a small one with two levels, covered by a dusty white sheet. That wasn't the shape of a shelf. "Hold on, I think I know what it is! Take everything off it, even the sheet!"

As the twins began taking items off the shelf and putting them on the ground, she took the bag of ice off her foot and got up. By the time she made it over, Dipper had pulled the sheet off to reveal...

"A piano!" Mabel cried. "Grunkle Stan has a piano?!"

Dipper opened the fall board and hit what should have been high C. All three of them winced. "A very out of tune piano."

"I don't think this thing has been played in years, or even decades." She pulled out the stool that had been hidden under it by the sheet and sat down. She hit a few keys and winced again. "Okay, I got this. Dipper, can you open the top and take out the front panels?" He went around to the side and lifted the top and took off the two front parts so they could see all the strings. "Okay, now do exactly what I tell you... this is going to take a while."

* * *

.oOo.

* * *

Wendy winced as all the noise clanged around her. There was just so much, she could barely concentrate on her magazine. The guy browsing the racks was whistling away, back in the house it sounded like someone was playing an instrument _really_ badly... for over an hour now, and over by the door Soos was unscrewing the bell for some reason. He had just started putting up a small black box when Stan came storming in from his office.

"Soos! What the hell do you think you're doing with my bell?!"

Soos looked down at him from the ladder, a sheepish look on his face despite the height he had on him. "Oh, ah, sorry Mr Pines. But Pacifica is scared of bells and Dipper asked me to take it down for her."

"She's afraid of bells?" Wendy sniggered.

"And what the hell do you think we're going to replace it with?"

"Ooho! Don't worry about it, Mr P. I got it covered!" He waved his hand under the small black box and suddenly his voice boomed out across the store, saying '_S-s-s-s-soos's rooooooom!_' His eyes widened and a faint blush grew on his cheeks. "Eh, erm... I'll just..." He reached up to the box and pressed a button on the side. "Uhh... Mystery Shack, beep boop!" He waved his hand underneath again.

'_Uh... Mystery Shack, beep boop!_'

"Yeah, that's not staying."

"Aww, come on Mr Pines, it's pretty cool," Wendy said. "You just need to find a better sound for it. Like... something creepy and mysterious."

"Fine, I'll give it a day. If it doesn't have a tune I like by then, it's gone."

"Will do, Mr Pines!"

"Yeah, whatever. You know, it's not like I run this place or anything," he muttered as he walked off.

* * *

.oOo.

* * *

It was two hours after they had discovered the piano. Mabel was thoroughly bored, sitting on the ground with her headphones in, starting to knit the second sweater of the day. Dipper was still leaning on the piano, watching what Pacifica was doing and helping her when needed. He wasn't sure how they'd managed to find all the tools she asked for, but they had all been hidden near the instrument.

Pacifica played a quick tune across the keys and smiled. "There, got it!" She took the tuning lever out and motioned for Dipper to put back the panels.

"Finally!" he exclaimed, taking the lever from her and helping her slide the panels back in place before flopping down into the arm chair. "I can't believe it takes that long to tune a piano!"

"When it's this out of tune, yeah. Actually, it could have taken longer, but I've been tuning my piano by ear for years. Seriously, I don't think it's Stan's piano. No one would just leave their piano alone for years and turn it into a shelf!"

"Then who's is it?" Mabel asked, having taken the headphones off when she heard they were done. "Maybe we should look for clues!"

"Or we could just ask Grunkle Stan."

"Or that." She smiled as she listened to Pacifica starting to play a full tune. It was just short, but it was cute and bouncy. "That's pretty. I can't believe you're still playing. Aren't your fingers tired by now?"

"Mabel, you've been knitting for the last three hours. Aren't _your_ fingers tired?" She shook her head. "Didn't think so. Besides I didn't spend two hours tuning this thing not to play it."

"What tune is that? I've never heard it before," Dipper said.

"Oh, I wrote this when I was younger. It's a silly little tune, but I like it. And I can play it however I want and it wont sound wrong." To show them what she meant, she started playing it slowly, turning it from a bubbly tune to something that would be more called sweet or sad.

"I like it," Mabel chirped.

"Huh. You found that old thing, did you?" They all looked up as Stan came in.

"Yeah, and Sif tuned it! She's really good."

"Grunkle Stan, who's piano is that? You can't play, can you?"

"Ah, no," he said awkwardly, scratching at the back of his head. A habit he and Dipper seemed to share. "No, it was my brother."

Mabel's eyes widened in surprise. "You have a brother?!"

Stan and Dipper both looked at her incredulously. "Mabel..." Dipper said.

"What? Oh, right. _Grunkle_. Grandpa Pines. Doi!" She slapped her head and rolled her eyes. "I guess I just forget sometimes. I mean, he died when dad was a kid and he doesn't remember him. And you never talk about him. And Grandma May never talks about you... I kind of forget you two are... um, connected."

"Heh. Yeah, your grandma doesn't really like me. My brother and I used to be really close. Almost as close as you two. But it's been thirty years and all..."

Sensing the discomfort in his voice, Pacifica decided to go with one of her favourite tactics when someone was in emotional distress. Subtle subject change. "Thirty years!" she exclaimed, her fingers still drifting over the keys. "This thing hasn't been played in thirty years?!"

"Meh, probably longer. Hey, what's that you're playing?"

"Just something I wrote."

"An original? Good, can't get sued for copyright. Can you make it creepier?"

"Creepier? Copyright? Wait, what?"

"Hey, it's your fault the bell is being taken down, and now we need a tune to replace it. Now make it creepier."

When he said that the bell was her fault, she looked at Dipper in confusion. He promptly his his face behind the journal to hide his guilty expression, and she shook her head. Of course he'd noticed. Of course he'd done something.

Turning back to the piano, she started the song from the beginning, this time singing eerily along with it.

"I like it," Stan said when she had finished. "But it's missing something. It needs something at the end."

"What about duck quacks?!" Mabel said excitedly.

"Creepy, Mabel."

"Okay, then. Lighting?"

"Hmm... Could do... Where's Soos' keyboard?"

"Wait, I got it!" Dipper cried. He jumped off the couch and grabbed a tape recorder. "Mabel, come here." She went over and he whispered in her ear. By the time he was done, they both had huge grins. He held out the recorder. "Ready? One... two... three..."

"Buy stuff from the Mystery Shack!" they said together in the creepiest whisper they could.

Stan raised an eyebrow. "Umm... that sounds creepy... kind of, but I don't think it's quite what-"

"Just wait," Dipper told him. "Sif, play it again."

"Really? You're calling me that now, too?"

He just shrugged. "Goddess, remember?"

She blinked. Wh-what did he mean by that? Did... he just call her a goddess? Trying to hide the blush that was starting to spread across her cheeks, she turned back to the piano and began to play. Once again she did the eerie singing, but this time when she got to the end, Dipper hit play on the recorder. A strange, gabbled whisper came out. It sounded mysterious and creepy, and actually fit in with the song. She hit the last note, leaving it hanging in the air and Stan grinned widely.

"Now that's what I'm talking about! Reversed recording and subliminal messages. I'm teaching you kids well."

The twins grinned at each other and Pacifica looked at him sideways. She had thought that her parents were corrupt, but holy crap, Stan was almost worse than them! The difference was that he actually seemed to care for his family more than his image.

"You think it will do?" Mabel asked hopefully.

"Sure. It's pretty good. But you gotta do it one more time." He stuck his head though the door and began to shout. "Hey, Soos! Get your ass in here with that box thing!"

"Okay, Mr Pines!" came the reply from the room. Not a minute later, he strolled into the room holding a small black box. "Have we got something to record, Mr Pines?"

"Yeah, the kids have a song to do. Now, record it and get that thing back up on the wall before I fire the lot of you!"

"Um... but I don't work here..." she pointed out.

"Can it, Northwest." And with that he left, the twins sniggering as he did. That was, until Dipper noticed Pacifica's expression.

"Hey, don't take anything he says to heart, okay? He only acts like a grouchy old man." She smiled slightly and nodded. "Okay then, let's do this."

"Alright then, everyone's going to have to get close together, the mic on this thing is pretty bad," Soos told them. He and Dipper both moved in closer to the piano. "Okay, ready? One... two... three..." With one hand, he held down the recording button, with the other he pointed at Pacifica, indicating for her to start. She played through the song again, and once again, at the end, Dipper played the backwards whisper. After the last note had been played, Soos stopped. He waved a hand under the sensor to play it back and nodded in satisfaction. "And that's a wrap, people." They all whooped and cheered, glad they'd done it. "I'm going to put this back up above the door."

"Thanks, Soos. I owe you one," Dipper grinned.

"Nah, this one's on the house. Gallantry is it's own reward."

As he left, Dipper turned back around to see Pasifica sitting there with her arms crossed and an eyebrow raised.

"You asked Soos to take the bell down for me?"

He scratched be back of his head awkwardly. "Y-yeah. Well, yesterday you flinched every time it rang. And I mean, what with the other night and your father, and-"

"Thank you."

"Huh?"

"I really can't stand that sound. So thank you."

"Yeah. Sure thing."

"I didn't even notice that!" Mabel said in amazement. "I mean, I noticed her flinch, I didn't know it was because of the bell. Dipper's good at noticing things like that. Hey! Do you want to keep playing, or we could watch a movie?"

"Yeah, movie would be cool." She got up from the piano and went and sat on the couch. Dipper went into the kichen to grab a bowl of popcorn, and Mabel went to grab the DVDs.

"Okay, I think it's a Disney day, today," she said. "Which one? Little Mermaid, Mulan, Tangled, or Frozen?"

"Tangled," Pacficia and Dipper said at the same time.

"Agreed!" She put the DVD on and got it to the play menu. By that time, Dipper was back with the food and the twins jumped up on the arms couch either side her, their feet up on the scull table.

"Just a warning. This is one of my favourite movies and I _will_ sing the whole way through."

"So will I!"

"I'm used to it," Dipper said, already eating the popcorn. Mabel shushed him, even though it was only playing the castle opening scene and he rolled his eyes, retaliating by loudly whistling the Steamboat Mickey tune. It wasn't till about eight minutes in, after the girls had sung the first song and Flynn Ryder was having his first scene that he spoke again, a small chuckle escaping his lips.

"It's like watching you two used together."

"What?"

"Rapunzel. She's a lot like the two of you. She's bubbly like Mabel. Seems to have as many creative talents as you both. Has long blonde hair and green eyes, like you. Oh, and she has a really horrible mother."

She snorted softly. "That's rich coming from a guy with brown hair, brown eyes, loves adventure, and doesn't even go by his real name!"

"Ha! She's right. Dipper, you're like Flynn! Hey, Grenda has an iguana. He could be Pascal!" she said excitedly.

"I have a grey that could be Max. She's actually whiter than him. Just as poncy, though."

"Okay, okay," Dipper laughed. "Enough turning our lives into a Tangled AU. Let's just watch-"

"Ooh! Shh! I love this song!" Mabel cried as _Mother Knows Best_ began to play.

Dipper just sighed and shook his head as the two girls began to sing. But as they sang, Pacifica's face slowly began to fall.

'_Mother knows best._

_Take it from your mumsy,_

_On your own, you won't survive._

_Sloppy, under-dressed,_

_Immature, clumsy._

_Please! They'll eat you up alive!_

_Gullible, naïve,_

_Positively grubby._

_Ditzy and a bit, well, hmm... vague._

_Plus, I believe, getting kinda chubby._

_I'm just saying 'cause I wuv you..._'

Her voice faded out and Mabel noticed the absence of her singing partner. She looked over at her friend to see her looking down with an annoyed, but sad expression.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

Pacifica looked at her in surprise. "Huh? Oh, ah, I just realised... my mother's said everything in that last verse to me."

"I'm going to introduce your mother to the Gremloblin," Dipper said with a flat voice and a scowl on his face.

"The what? You know what, never mind. What are you two, mind readers? How did you even pick up on that?"

"What? Than you were upset?" Mabel said, a little confused. "It's not hard. It's just paying attention."

"Oh," she said. "I guess I'm just not used to people... actually paying attention."

Mabel gave her a sympathetic smile and put an arm around her in a side hug. She accepted it, leaning her head against her shoulder. From the other side, she felt a warm, slightly sweaty hand slip into hers and give it a squeeze. Her heart fluttered.

No. No, stop! She couldn't do this. He was just being nice to her. She was only getting attached because he was being _really_ genuinely nice to her. That was all. She had to kill this crush before it got to the point where-

She looked up at him and he gave her one of those gorgeous, goofy grins of his that-

Crap. Too late.

Nah-ah. No. She refused to crush on Dipper Pines. The nerdy dork who'd spent most of his summer with his nose in a book. Who had spent an entire fair doing maths equations on a- No, hold on. That had never happened. He had just epically failed his throw and hit Wendy in the eye with a ball... This was the same clumsy guy who was obsessed with the paranormal. Who wore the same few sets of clothes every day. Who lived in a run down, shabby shack with the town conman. The same guy who had helped someone he couldn't stand, just to make his sister happy. The same guy who had saved her life, who had patched her up and accepted her into his home with no complaint. Who had spent the last few days doing everything he could to make her feel better. The guy who had an adorable habit of clicking pens while he was thinking, or chewing on them till they broke. Who's warm russet eyes lit up whenever he smiled...

God damn it, she was doomed.

Tuning out all thoughts of her foolish infatuation, she focused back on the movie. Other than the songs, they carried on in enjoyable silence. The twins were practically sitting on top of her in their bundle on the couch. At one point, Dipper completely surprised her when he suddenly began to sing Flynn's part in _I See the Light_. He was actually really good. She had no idea that he could sing... especially after hearing his horrible rendition of _Disco Girl_ in the bathroom that morning.

After the movie was over, the twins got up and stretched. Pacifica did so herself, trying to get some feeling back into parts of her body.

"Hey!" Mabel cried, exited once more. "If I cut my hair I could totally pass for brunette Rapunzel for that real life - Tangled AU."

Pacifica nodded in agreement, mulling over Mabel's words. But she wasn't thinking about the AU they'd created anymore. No, something else had stuck, and for some reason it became more and more appealing the more she thought about it.

"I want to cut my hair."

Mabel looked at her sharply and a wide grin grew on the girl's face.

She was about to have a lot of fun.

.

.

.

* * *

_**Haha, Mabel is certainly going to have a lot of fun with this.**_

_**It was funny writing this chapter, because I was thing to think of other names for Disney and all the movies. Then I realised… Gravity Falls is Disney, and they probably wouldn't have to sensor those. So Disney movies won't be changed. Also, I managed to get a whole day written into one chapter. So Maybe it won't end up being 50 something chapters after all. **_

_**See you next chapter!**_


	8. Haircuts and Blue Soap

_**Hi! Sorry this one took so long – well, in comparison – the RP blog seems to be taking up some of my writing time. On the bright side, it's really helping out with plot.**_

_**So, this is the chapter where she gets her hair cut. I've made some references to DaMGTMaNSF in this chapter. Now, I've actually had this chapter planned for a long time, as you can tell by the cover. The funny thing is that the day I wrote her hair being cut, was the day my aunt finally convinced me to cut my own. It was my first proper haircut in over seven years and my hair went from being at my lower back, to just below my shoulders. It's the shortest it's been in YEARS and I am NOT used to it! Also, I got some blonde highlights. I still take a second to recognise myself in reflections. So, a lot of this chapter is now written on a recent experience.**_

_**Oh, and one of my best friends got me a toy bunny for Yule! I haven't had a soft toy since I was ten! She got me it because I mentioned Daisy the bunny on my RP blog, and she sent me a bunny obsessed M!A... yeah. That was fun.**_

_**Anyway! On with the chapter!**_

* * *

.

.

.

**Haircuts and Blue Soap**

.

.

_The sound of the water pummelling the rocks at the base of the falls drummed in her ears. But still it could not down out the calls._

"_Pacifica!"_

"_Pacifica, come down!"_

_Her mother, her father, Dipper, Mabel, Stan, Wendy, Soos, Tiffany, Aubrey, Murphy... their voices all called to her from below. She lay on her stomach, looking down at the waters below. But all she could see was the mist. She didn't know why she had to go down, but she felt a bit apprehensive about it. And she knew that there was no way down that wouldn't hurt her._

_Suddenly, a low laughter came from behind her. She rolled over and got up to see a man. He looked vaguely familiar... like she'd seen him in a picture somewhere. He was a relation of hers... her great grandfather or something like that. Only, he was slightly different. He was still wearing the suit, complete with top hat, bow-tie, and cane. But his blonde hair was running wild, instead of being slicked back. Part of it was left hanging over one eye, hiding it. The other was bright yellow with a slit pupil. He stood there, grinning at her._

"_Why do they keep calling for me?" she asked. "I'm nothing special."_

"_Oh, but you are," he said, walking closer to her and taking her chin in his hand so she was forced to look up at him. "You have been long awaited, Princess. And they call because they are hungry."_

"_What?" she stuttered, utterly confused._

_Still holding her face, he looked out over the town. From here you could see everything. "Oh, you stupid girl. You could have had everything. Now you have to Awaken, or fall."_

_The hand fell from her chin and rested on her chest, just below her collar bone. Then he gave her a harsh shove. She felt her feet slip over the edge of the cliff. She was falling, plummeting closer and closer to the water and the rocks below. The voices called out to her, their cries becoming louder. Not even her screams of fear could drown them out._

_She hit the water._

_._

Pacifica woke with a scream on her lips. She sat bolt upright, panting. Looking out her window, she could see that the moon was still high in the sky, it was only just beginning to wane. Another nightmare. Taking a deep, shaky breath, she ran a hand through her hair.

At the sound of rushed footsteps, she looked up just in time to see Dipper open the door, a panicked look on his face. Dim light filtered in from the hall, making her blink. A tear or two she didn't know were in her eyes fell down her cheeks.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

She gave a small nod. "Just another nightmare," she told him.

He seemed to visibly relax, though he still looked slightly concerned. Leaving the door open a little, he came into the room and sat on her bed. "You seem to be having those a lot."

"Yeah, tell me about it," she said, her voice still a little shaky. "I usually never have nightmares. But I've been having them almost every night lately. Only night I haven't since just before the party was the night I came here."

"Well, you were pretty deeply asleep that morning. You were exhausted... What were the dreams about?"

She shook her head. "I... I don't really know. They were all a bit confusing. One had the ghost in it. Last night had everyone as trees again, and they were blaming me for it, and then I was drowning. And th-then tonight my great grandfather pushed me off the cliffs, and..." She buried her head in her knees. "I don't like nightmares."

She was startled when a hand started stroking her hair, starting at the back of her head and going all the way down her back before starting over again. At first she tensed up, but soon relaxed into it. It felt good.

Dipper gave a soft chuckle. "I don't think anyone really likes nightmares."

"They're not nice." Her voice was muffled by the blankets. "I'm sorry I woke you again."

"Well, I was already up, so..."

She raised her head enough to look at him. "Don't you ever sleep?"

He just shrugged in response, but she couldn't help noticing that he seemed a little concerned. "Do you need anything?" he asked. "You seem to be having rough nights, so I could... I don't know, grab you some water."

Many things ran though her mind. Ask him to stay. Ask him to jump in the small bed. Ask him for cuddles. Cuddles made everything better. Especially cuddles with Dipper. She could feel her cheeks heat up, and she was glad that it was too dark for him to see that. "No. No, I'm fine," was all she said.

"You sure?"

"Yeah. I'll be okay."

"Okay," he said, getting up and walking to the door. "Just remember, Mabel and I are just upstairs if you need anything. I know the foot may be a bit of an issue but... Hmm... maybe we should get walkie talkies or something."

"Speaking of the foot, when can I get rid of the crutches? I mean, it doesn't hurt so much anymore. I can almost put full pressure on it." She looked at him hopefully.

Dipper tilted his head side to side, weighing up his options. "Give it another day or so. Just to be sure. I'll see you in the morning, yeah?"

She gave a small nod and Dipper smiled at her as he closed the door, cutting off the light from the hall and leaving her alone in the darkness. The light of the moon was the only thing illuminating the room again. She glanced up at it and sighed heavily before lying down and curling in. She doubted she'd get much more sleep.

* * *

.oOo.

* * *

A loud shriek rung through out the shack, making everyone stare at the door in shock. Not a second later, Pacifica quickly hobbled out into the store. When she got to the counter she held out her hands hopelessly.

"They're blue!" she cried, seeming a little shell-shocked. "My hands are blue, and it won't come off!"

Dipper stared at her hands curiously. It looked like they'd been stained with bright blue ink.

"Is that... from the Mystery Soap?" he asked.

"Haha, yep!" Wendy chortled. "Stan got me to put a bar in the shop bathroom to trick customers into buying the heavy duty soap since Blubs banned him from charging for the toilet. Sorry, Sif."

At the use of the informal name that she still wasn't quite on board with, she shot the redhead a small glare. "What the hell is Mystery Soap?"

"It's one of Grunkle Stan's gag items. It's only 15¢, and it dyes your hands blue... or well, anything it comes into contact with once it's wet. It takes industrial strength soap to get it off. Which, of course, he sells at $15 a bucket."

Pacifica groaned, looking at her hands in dismay. She'd worked with dyes and inks a lot for art and the likes. She knew that even with heavy duty soap that the ink would have already stained will into her skin by now. It would take a day or two to completely fade away. Her mother had always made her wear gloves when that happened.

"Relax, Sif," Mabel told her. "We have some upstairs. We could wash your hands, then cut your hair!"

"Whoa!" Wendy said in surprise. "You're cutting your hair?"

"Yep. To about here." She held her hands just above her shoulders. "Provided Mabel does it right."

"Wow, that's a big change. Your hair is longer than mine."

"Of course I'll do it right!"

"Mabel's actually really good with hair. She's been doing the family's for years."

Everyone spoke at once, leaving her a little bewildered. But she'd made out what Wendy had said better and replied to her.

"I needed a change." She shrugged. "I've thought about cutting and even dying it before.-"

"Wait, that's not bleached?"

"-_But_ Mom never let me," she continued, speaking over the interruption. "I mean, I love my long hair, but it's been this long for as long as I can remember."

"Seriously, your hair is that blonde?" Dipper said.

"Seriously, your head is that big?" she retorted.

"Ha!" Mabel laughed at her brother. Dipper just rolled his eyes. He had that one coming.

"Now, if you'll excuse me," she said. "I'll go wash my hands now."

"I'll catch up!" Mabel called as she picked up her crutch and headed towards the staff door. "The soap is in the cabinet under the sink!"

Once Pacifica was gone, she ducked over to one of the shelves before grabbing something and skipping back. Digging around in her pocket, she found a quarter and placed in on the counter in front of Wendy. She stashed whatever she'd just brought into her pocket.

"Mabel, what are you doing?" Dipper asked suspiciously.

"Why, Dipper, I don't know what you're talking about." Her voice was dripping with mock innocence. "But I have to go now. Pacifica is waiting for me. So I'll see you when we're done!" And she skipped off before he could stop her.

Dipper sighed in exasperation. "I have a bad feeling about this."

By the time Mabel made it up to the bathroom, Pacifica had only just gotten inside herself.

"I hate stairs," she mumbled, heading over to the sink. While she washed her hands a total of three times with the thick, gritty soap, Mabel dashed in and out of the room, grabbing things for hair cutting. Her hands were still slightly blue by the end of it, but it was only _just_ noticeable now. Of course, her hands had gone closer to red with how hard she'd scrubbed them.

Mabel had made a pretty decent set up in that time. She'd put a stool near the sink for her to sit on. And the bench hand an array of brushes, combs, clips, bottles, and scissors. She was waiting with a towel and a large clip.

"Wow," she remarked. "I'm not sure if I should be nervous or impressed. You almost look like you could be a professional... well, without this grotty bathroom."

"I do, don't I?" she grinned. "I should start charging for this or something. Now sit that hot butt of yours down and lets get started."

She blushed a little at the comment and did as she was told. Mabel put a towel around her shoulders and clipped it in place, then began running a brush through her hair, finding it perfectly smooth.

"You know, you could do a hairdressing course when you leave school or something like that."

"Ooh! That's a good idea. I could charge to cut peoples hair to save up for it!"

Pacifica laughed. "Do a good job now and I'll pay for you to go," she joked.

"Deal! No take backs!" Mabel shouted. "Hey, you could do a make up course or something. Ooh! Then we could open a beauty parlour together!"

Another giggle escaped Pacifica, Mabel's cheerfulness rubbing off on her. To be honest, running a beauty parlour together was actually a pretty cool idea. Though, she knew her parents would never let her do such a thing. But one could always dream.

Behind her, Mabel was putting a hair-tie in about half way up her hair. "Okay, this is it," she warned. "Gonna chop off all your hair. So last chance to turn back."

"No, I'm good," she said. She'd come this far, after all.

The next moment she heard the snicking of the scissors and they chopped through her hair, bit by bit. Snick, snick, snick, snick, snick, snick, snick. Her nerves were on high, but suddenly she felt a lot lighter. No, really, the literally weight that had been taken off made her head feel so light.

"Wow!" Mabel exclaimed. She held a ponytail of blonde hair out for her to see. "You could make a whole new wig out of this. There's got to be two feet of hair, here!"

"Yep. I have a lot of hair."

"Had."

"Had," she amended.

"And now onto the styling! This is the fun part."

For the next ten minutes, she sat as still as she could, chatting away while Mabel cut her hair. It was actually quite fun. Unlike the hairdressers she usually went to, she actually liked talking to Mabel. And from what she could see in the mirror, the style actually looked quite pretty. It was incredibly strange to see, but still very pretty.

"There, that should do it," Mabel said proudly. "Now turn around and lean back into the sink."

"...Why?"

"So I can wash your hair. Doi! The full hairdresser experience, Mabel style!"

After a moment, she shrugged and did as she was told. Mabel ran the water till it was warm and started soaking her hair. Then she began shampooing it, massaging her scalp. She couldn't help but let out a soft moan at the contact. It felt really good, but something felt a little weird, though. Was Mabel wearing rubber gloves? When the hell had she been putting those on? Not long after, she was already washing out the suds. It shocked her how long it had taken... or well, not long. She was used to taking a good five or so minutes to shampoo her hair. Next, Mabel got her to sit up again and began to condition. She really worked it in, especially focusing on the tips for a good while.

"I'm going to do a deep condition," Mabel told her, grabbing the hair-dryer and turning it on. Huh... she wasn't wearing gloves anymore.

"You're really going all out," she commented.

"I really want to win that bet," Mabel replied cheerfully, shouting over the loud noise. She continued to blow-wave her hair in silence for a while. It was almost uncomfortably hot, but Pacifica had done this herself before. She knew how incredibly soft her hair would be after. Mabel turned off the hair-dryer. "Okay, let's rinse this out and see what we've got." Once more, she leaned back and had her hair rinsed out in the sink. And after that, Mabel used the hair-dryer again. She could feel the tips of her hair whip around near her cheeks... it was a strange sensation. Mabel unclipped the towel and took it from her shoulders. "And now time for the big reveal!"

.

Dipper was just about to knock on the bathroom door when, for the second time that day, a high pitched squeal rung out through the shack. Without another moments pause, he dashed in.

"It's blue!" she cried, looking at her new haircut in the mirror with wide eyes. It was now up just above her shoulders, but the bottom inch or so was a bright blue. "You dyed my hair blue!"

"Oh no," Dipper groaned.

"Only the tips," Mabel said. "You said you were thinking about dying your hair, and the soap gave me an idea. I call it 'Pacifica Blue'. You know, instead of 'Pacific Blue'? I thought it was pretty-"

"Mabel!" Dipper reprimanded her.

"You dyed my hair blue!" Pacifica repeated, still staring at her hair in shock.

Mabel's smile faded. "Are you okay?

She nodded numbly, still not looking away from the mirror. "Just give me a moment."

"It – it really does look pretty," Dipper tried to reassure her.

She nodded slowly again. "Yep. Very pretty. Very blue. Very short."

"I think you broke her," he muttered to his twin.

"I'm sorry," Mabel said.

"No, it – it's fine. Just... just warn me next time you do something like that."

"Whoo! Next time!" Mabel shouted. The shock began to wear off and Pacifica reached up and started touching her hair. "So, do you like it?"

"Yeah. Yeah, I do. It's just so... different. Good different... I think. I'm just not used to it." Suddenly she seemed to freeze up. "Oh no! I don't know how to style short hair. How do you style short hair?"

She turned around and looked between the twins in desperation. Mabel just shrugged.

"Don't look at me," Dipper said. "I don't even brush mine half the time. Just need my hat and I'm good."

"My hair's always been this long," Mabel told her. "My guess is about as good as yours."

Pacifica sighed and ran a hand through her hair again, looking slightly startled when she reached the ends sooner than she expected. "It's so short! It's going to take a while to get used to, I guess."

"I bet," Dipper said. "It looks really different. Good different." She gave him a smile in return for the compliment.

"Good enough to get a free hairdressing course?" Mabel questioned sweetly.

"What?" Dipper said in confusion?

"Yeah, sure. Why not." Pacifica shrugged.

"Wait, what?"

"We made a deal," Mabel informed her brother.

"Most expensive haircut I've ever had."

"Wow, that's... really nice of you, Pacifica."

"Not as nice as what you two are doing for me. Honestly, it's the least I could do."

"You really don't have to pay us back for-"

"Nope," she said, cutting him short. "Not another word about it. It's what friends do for each other, right?"

He grinned at her. "Right. Hey, how about we go show Wendy how the hair turned out? She's been dying to know. And when I say dying, I mean she's been joking about it for the last hour."

"You two go on ahead," Mabel said. "I should probably clean up here. I'll catch you up."

"Okay, Good idea. Grunkle Stan will kill you two if it isn't clean." He walked over to the sink and grabbed Pacifica's crutch. But instead of giving it to her, he offered her his arm. "It your foot is starting to feel better, it'll probably be easier for me to help you down the stairs, rather than use this."

She nodded and took a hold of his arm, leaning on him as he led her out of the room. "You sure I can't just ditch it now? I can do without it for a lot of things."

"One more day," he reiterated.

"Fine," she sighed. "Have it your way, Doctor Dipper."

"Good, maybe I will for once." He shot her a cheeky grin and handed her the crutch when they reached the landing.

"Dork," she muttered.

He just smiled at her and shook his head. "Come on, let's go show-" He was interrupted by loud barking near by. It didn't stop. The dog just kept barking, like it was agitated by something. "What's that? We don't have any dogs. What's it barking at?"

He turned and instead of heading out into the shop, he went out the back door. Pacifica quickly hobbled after him, wincing slightly as she ignored the crutch. When they got out there, they saw a black labrador barking madly at the house. It looked like it had trapped something there.

"Hey! Hey, get away from there!" Dipper yelled at the dog. He threw a stick at its rump to get its attention. Once he had it, he picked up another stick and waved it about, drawing the dog away before throwing the stick as far as he could. The dog bolted after it.

While he'd drawn the dog away, Pacifica had already started over to the corner where she could see something trembling. Dipper came to join her and they were a little surprised by what they saw. It wasn't an animal the dog had been after, but two small fairies.

They were curled in the corner, holding onto each other and shaking with fear. They both had rather dark skin and translucent web-y wings. One was wearing a blue and white tribal pattered top with a white grass skirt. She had a blue tattoo on her chin, and a band that matched her shirt around her head. Her wings looked like they had been tattooed with tribal patterns of rolling waves. The other was very slender. She was wearing a green sari and both her hands and her wings were covered in pretty henna designs.

When they noticed that they dog was gone, they peeked open their eyes and then blinked at the two teens. When they saw Pacifica, their mouths almost seemed to drop.

"E anana..." the one in blue breathed. "Pacifica?!"

.

.

.

* * *

_**Viola!**_

_**Okay, one thing before I continue with this this... the little blue tribal fairy is Maori, and she will be speaking some random Maori words. In the last line, what she is pretty much saying is 'oh wow'. But here's an important thing to remember. Maori vowels are different. Instead of a, e, i, o, u, it's pronounced ah, eh, ee, or, oo. So, just keep that in mind when reading her lines.**_

_**If you want to know about the other little fairy, she is from Bangladesh and my friend Farhana is helping me write her.**_

_**Oh! And happy Yule or Litha to those who celebrate them!**_

_**And now, I leave you with this... erm... cliffhanger. I'm sorry... Not really.**_


	9. Memory Wipes and Sleeping Arrangements

**_IMPORTANT NOTICE_ – PLEASE READ_!_**

_**Hi everyone. I really upsets me that I have to post this notice and I hate to do it, but I really feel the need to remind some people of this.**_

_**I have been getting a lot of rather rude reviews lately, demanding that I update ASAP. One guest reviewer went so far as to say that they are annoyed and getting 'very agitated'. This is NOT acceptable.**_

_**By now, I really shouldn't have to remind you all that fanfiction writers write these stories in their free time, and they do not get paid for it. There are people out there making money for what we do. Most of us have lives. We have friends, and family, and jobs or school, and - most importantly – our health to worry about.**_

_**It is something that we do for FUN and we are not actually OBLIGATED to post anything.**_

_**I personally have a full time job which I am working ovetime at the moment to fill in for our receptionist who is on annual leave. My boss has breast cancer as is taking time off for her treatment. And on top of that, I am still sick from an issue with my kidneys that my useless doctors can't seem to fix. So work is very stressful at the moment. On top of that, there have been birthdays galore, which I have been doing facepainting and cake making and all for.**_

_**A few weeks is nothing to get stressed over. I promise you that I am still working away at all my stories. Sometimes the muse is stronger for a certain story or fandom. Writing is hard guys! And you aren't always in the mood for it. Also, editing is really not fun.**_

_**But please, for the love of every writer in the world, please stop demanding updates. Please show us some respect and not pressure us for another chapter. This is something that we do for fun in our own time, and people demanding things like that actually feels horrible. It makes us feel like we are letting readers down. Is waiting a few more weeks for a new chapter really going to hurt you that much?**_

_**Just please, PLEASE remember to be nice to us fanfiction writers. Positive reviews make us thrive. Negative ones make us want to stop.**_

_**...**_

_**Okay, sorry for that. Now that the annoyed rant is over, onto the nicer stuff. I've been really busy lately with increased hours and many, birthdays. And it has all been pretty fun. Apart from being sick. I'm totally over that. I've been sleeping like crazy, and it's annoying because I have so much to do!**_

_**This chapter is nice and long. It turned out to be about 9 pages with the translations tacked onto the end. And since I've had the upcoming plot tiwst planned from the start, I already have the first 4 pages of the next chapter written up. I hope you like the fairies! They're only a few of my Gravity Falls Ocs, but they're the only ones I'm going to use in this fic.**_

_**On with the story! Enjoy!**_

* * *

.

.

.

**Memory Wipes and Sleeping Arrangements**

.

.

Pacifica stared at the fairy in shock. "Wh-what?" she stuttered. "How do you-?

"Pacifica!" the fairy in green piped up. Excitedly, she flew up and hovered just in front of her face. "Hai Allah! Moana taake daak! Koto boro hooye gese amader may! Aare koto shunder! Taar chul! Oh amader shunderi may!"

The teens stared at her in bewilderment.

"I know, I know, aroha," the fairy in blue spoke to the other. "But calm down, she-"

"Shay amader er srthi akhono oh mone nai..."

"No, she doesn't," replied said sadly.

"Okay, okay, okay," Dipper said, holding his hands up. "the fact that you two somehow know Pacifica aside, if she speaks... whatever language that was, how does she understand you?"

"Seriously? That's what you're worried about?!" Pacifica cried.

The blue fairy just laughed. "Oh, Pātā can speak English. She's just a little shit and refuses to speak anything but Bengali."

"Moana!" the green fairy cried aghast.

"What?! She's seventeen! I doubt she cares if I swear!"

"Tao shay bacha. Aamra taar boro, aare eta amader daeto je aamra taake bhalo sekha dai -"

"Yeah, I don't really care about all of that. Who are you, and how the hell do you know me?" Pacifica demanded.

Moana looked at her sadly. "I am Moana, and this is Pātā. You used to know us too, a long time ago. We used to play with you when you were young. Then we went away for a while, and when we came back you didn't remember us."

Pacifica shook her head stubbornly. "This has to be some sort of joke, because that makes no sense. I would remember if I had played with fairies when I was a kid. How the hell would I forget something like that?!"

"McGucket's gun," Dipper murmured.

"What?"

"That gun I told you about. The memory gun. Maybe they got you."

"What? And wiped my memory of a couple of fairies that I've never seen in my life?!"

"Well, you wouldn't actually remember, would you?"

"There was never anything to remember!"

"Your favourite animal is bunnies." Moana's soft voice was enough to break through their argument. It was enough to grab Pacifica's attention, and she looked at the fairy with a furrowed brow.

"Fool Moana, taare fooler kotha bolo." Pata grabbed at her hand, tugging it gently.

"Pātā wants me to say that your favourite flowers were those large purple daisies. And your parents wouldn't let you plant any in your garden because they thought they looked tacky." She now had Pacifica's full – though rather confused – attention. "You have a scar above your left eyebrow from jumping on the bed. You slipped on a soft toy and hit your head on the corner of the frame. Your mum threw the toy in the fire, and made you cut your fringe like that to hide it.

"How did you..."

"Because you're our buba. We were there for all of it, looking after you when they didn't." She flitted up and gently touched her cheek. "Please, Pacifica. _Please_ remember..."

"I... I have no idea what's going on. I have to go." She grabbed her crutch and limped away quickly as she could, her face rather pale.

"Sif!-" Dipper called, getting up go go after her.

"Wait!" He stopped and turned back to the fairies, who were trying to console one another. "We- we hate to ask, especially now, but... we need some help."

"Ugh... What with?" he said hesitantly, watching Pacifica go back inside the house.

"There's been a bit of an issue with the tribe we usually stay with. There's a fight over the territory, and while it's going on, nowhere in the forest is safe for a fairy. And we have nowhere else to go..."

"So, you need somewhere to stay?"

"The fairies are at war, and the forest isn't safe anymore. If they sound us, it could mean death. And we can't go to my home. It's winter in New Zealand, and it's far too cold for us. And in Bangladesh... well, we're not welcome there. Stupid, oppressive, bigoted-"

"Moana!"

"Right, sorry. Point is, we need somewhere safe to stay. Um... Somewhere near Pacifica, if possible."

Dipper scratched the back of his head. "Ah, well, she's staying here with us for a few weeks, but... ah, I'm not so sure how good an idea it is you two sticking around. I mean, she's sure to come around, but... well, she's not having the best time lately."

"Is it those bloody horrible parents of hers?" He nodded. "Why, those no good, fifthly, rich, pākehā pieces of tūtae! I ought to tie every strand of Pracilla's hair to that fancy ass headboard of theirs!"

"Oi haramjadara, jodi aami are boro hoitam, taholey aami tader ke martam onek aage."

"Whoa, Pātā! That's a bit violent for you."

"Tara aamar may ke marse, too aami oo tader ke marbo," she said firmly. Moana nodded in agreement.

"Ah, yeah. I have no idea what you're saying. But... you two seem _really_ protective of her."

"Of course we are. Aren't you?"

"Well, yeah. I guess. I mean, we haven't really been friends until recently. Very recently."

"Shudhu Notun? Kintu tomra duijon onek kache. Ke shundor."

"Pātā's right. You two are so adorable, you'd think that you'd've known each other for years!"

"I am not adorable!" he cried, his voice almost cracking. He coughed and his voice went an octave lower than normal when he spoke. "I'm manly as hell." Instantly, both fairies burst into a fit of laughter. "Stop it! Look, we've only known each other for less than a few months. And I've only even _liked_ her for the past few days!" He crossed his arms defensively. If it was possible, the fairies' faces got even brighter.

"Shay taake pochondo koree!"

"He likes her!" they said at the same time. In the next moment, they were holding hands and spinning in circles in the air. "he likes her! He likes her! Pacifica's got a boyfriend!"

"Amader may preme porse! Shay bhalobasha dubey assey!"

"What, What?! NO!" she said, going beet red. "Just – just stop. It's not like that. Please stop!" They didn't. "Seriously, stop! ...Look, I will find you somewhere to stay if you just _stop!__"_

They both stopped spinning quicker than he could even blink. "Okay!"

"Thikashe!" they chirped.

He sighed, practically slapping his hand to his face. "Okay. For now just, ah... hide out in the gift shop or museum. If anyone sees you in there, they'll just think you're part of the attractions. I'll go organise something and see if Sif is alright." he groaned as he stood up.

He had just been blackmailed by a couple of fairies. Taunted into it at the very least. And there was a high chance that Pacifica wasn't going to like it...

Oh, he was doomed.

* * *

.oOo.

* * *

Mabel had just finished cleaning up the bathroom when she heard the telltale thump, thump – thump, thump of Pacifica coming up the stairs. Only, it was much faster than usual. She stuck her head out the door in time to see her running past, barely using the crutch, looking rather flustered.

She followed Pacifica into her room, where she found her sitting on the bed, clinging to Daisy for dear life. She looked like she was about to start hyperventilating and seemed pretty pale.

"Uh-oh, you look like you could use another Code Fluffy," she said, going and sitting on the bed with her. "If it's about the hair, I'm really sorry. I should have asked." Pacifica shook her head. "Then what's wrong?"

"Do you think it's possible to completely forget someone?" She asked.

Mabel shrugged. "Yeah, I guess. Especially if you knew them when you were, like... really little. I mean, there are people I used to go to school with, and I can't remember them at all. I completely forgot they ever existed. And then I'll see a picture of them and it will be like 'Oh yeah! I used to know that person!' But I still can't for the life of me remember their name or any time we talked or something."

"No, I mean like... _Completely_ forgotten. Like, you actually don't remember them existing. You can't even recognise their face, or their name. Nothing about them is familiar and it's like you'd never met them before. But they're someone that there's no possible way you could ever forget them."

"Okay... That's a little weird. Amnesia, maybe? Memory gun? I don't know. You live in Gravity Falls. All sorts of weird things happen here. Why? Who'd you forget?"

Pacifica curled up, resting her chin on her knees as she looked up at her friend. "Fairies, apparently."

"Fairies?!"

"Yeah. We saw a couple outside and... well, they knew me."

"Maybe they were tricking you?"

She shook her head. "They knew stuff about me that... well, I don't think I've ever told anyone some of those things."

"That's weird... and _so cool_!"

"No! Not cool. It means that someone or something's removed my memories of them."

"Well, yeah. You live here. The Society of the Blind Eye probably got you ages ago. They've been around for about thirty years kidnapping people and erasing their memories of all the weird stuff. And slowly driving everyone insane because the gun has funny side effects."

"Comforting," she muttered sarcastically.

"What got you all mope-y about the fairies? Do you want to get your memories back or something?"

"I don't know. I mean, they were just so sweet and they really seemed to care for me. And they were so sad that I didn't know them. And I just... stood there. They were begging me to remember them, and I couldn't say anything. I ran. I just don't know-"

"How to deal with people caring about you? We noticed."

She shot Mabel a half-hearted look of annoyance. "My parents _do_ care for me, you know. Just in a very... rather controlling manor."

"They set your teddy on fire," Dipper chimed in as he entered the room.

"That's not really-"

"They did what?!" Mabel cried aghast.

"They didn't-"

"They threw her soft toy on the fire. I'm sorry, but what kind of psychopaths do that to their kid?"

"They're not-

"Oh, that's it! They crossed the line this time!"

"It was twelve years ago!" she burst out, trying to calm them down. "Guys I'm over it! I don't care anymore! I learnt to get over things very quickly, because nothing is permanent!"

They both fell silent, staring at her with twin looks of concern. "Do you... really believe that?" Dipper asked.

She shrugged indifferently. "Nothing really stayed around long enough to prove me otherwise." Not even people. Other than her parents, the longest relationships she had were with Murphy and her horse!

"Yikes," Mabel said, rubbing the back of her neck. "You're almost as pessimistic as Dipper."

She just shrugged again. "Oh well. It's fine, I think you've got enough optimism for the three of us, Mabel." She shot them both a smile.

* * *

.oOo.

* * *

Pacifica more flopped than lay on her bed that night. She was exhausted, to say the least. After Dipper and Mabel had talked her into going downstairs, they'd showed Wendy her hair. Then they'd gone outside and hand a water balloon fight. It was very tricky for her, considering that she had to attempt to escape using her crutch, defend, and try and throw balloons. Dipper had gone easy on her. Mabel had made no such promise, and she'd ended up soaked. Despite that, she'd had a lot of fun, and since it was such a hot day, they'd dried up pretty quickly.

Afterwards, Wendy joined them inside and they watched some movies. She, Dipper and Wendy spent most of the time making sarcastic remarks about the plot and acting. That was until they put on a movie that Pacifica had never seen before. And she had a bad habit of getting completely engrossed in new movies. She didn't mind so much with movies that she'd seen dozens of times, but ones she'd never seen before... Any time someone tried to talk, they were slushed immediately. In fact, she was so involved in the movie that she didn't even notice when Mabel sat behind her and bedazzled her hair!

At some point, Stan had brought them pizza. The twins and Wendy had delighted in telling her about some of the adventures they'd had. She also had her chance when she and Dipper animatedly told the others exactly what had happened the party with the ghost. Dipper earned himself a smack on the arm for telling them about the hug she'd paid him to pretend it never happened.

And to top it off, they'd danced and sung loudly to some of the more up beat and kick ass songs on the mixed tape Mabel had made for her. It had been a night full of fun, jokes, teasing, and laugher. And by the time they finally headed off to bed, it was a little after 3am.

Pacifica didn't bother changing into her pyjamas, and just stripped down into her underwear and a tank top. It usually took her a while to get to sleep, but she was out to it the moment her head hit the pillows.

.

"_Stop! Would you please just stop!" Dipper shouted at her._

"_But I'm telling the truth! Please Dipper, you have to trust me!"_

"_Why should I?" he snapped. "All you've ever done is lie!"_

"_No, I didn't mean to-"_

"_You're a liar, Pacifica. Always have been, always will be."_

"_No, I've changed. Dipper, please! I couldn't help it. I had no choice."_

"_I don't think she has the ability to tell the truth." At the sound of the dreamy voice, they both looked up to see Mabel floating on the ceiling, her hair drifting higher than her outstretched arms. "She's so used to lying, it comes naturally to her. She could lie to us and we'd never know."_

"_Mabel's right. We can't trust you." Dipper glared at her, making her feel like her heart had stopped beating. She wanted to breathe, but she couldn't._

"_No, please, Dipper! You have to- Mabel, tell him! Tell him he's in danger!_

"_I want to ride the horses!" Mabel said excitedly, despite the dream tone her voice still held._

"_Mabel!"_

"_Enough, Pacifica!" he growled._

"_But he's after you! He wants to hurt you!"_

"_No, he's after you! And you're just putting the rest of us in danger. Just leave us alone. I'm done with all your secrets."_

"_No, no, no! Please!"_

"_Pacifica!"_

"_Dipper, please! You have to listen to me!"_

"_Pacifica!"_

_._

"Pacifica!"

"No! I didn't... I didn't... Dipper?"

Slowly, she became aware that things were different than before. She was no longer in some creepy, vague, red washed place. She was in her room, the faint light from outside the only thing illuminating the darkness. There was certainly no floating Mabel on the ceiling. And instead of hatred, Dipper was looking down on her in concern and sympathy.

"Another one?" he said softly. "Jeez, you aren't having much luck with sleep, are you?"

She shook her head in reply. "Neither are you, though," she said just as quietly. This had been her third night in a row waking up from a nightmare. And every time he'd been there. Every time he had woken her up because he'd been close by.

"Are you alright?" he asked. She nodded. "You don't have to lie, you know."

"What?!" she panicked.

"You don't have to put on a brave face or anything. Not around us."

"I'm not. I'm fine," she lied. After the dream she'd just had, it almost made her cringe.

"You know, I'd almost believe that, but you're, um... you're kinda..." He pointed to her face and she reached up to feel that her cheeks were wet. She'd been crying. Still was, she realised.

"Oh." She wiped at her eyes, sniffing slightly, and her chin began to tremble.

"Hey, it's okay!" he said, quickly wrapping her up in a hug. "Whatever it was, it wasn't real, okay? Whatever happened, whatever anyone said, it didn't happen."

She nodded into his shoulder, still sniffing. She could feel a wet patch under her cheek where her tears had stained his shirt.

"I don't want to go back to sleep," she mumbled.

Dipper chucked so quietly that she felt more than heard it. "I know what you mean. But after the night we had, you might want to. It's barely been a few hours. You need more sleep than that."

"Look who's talking," she said, leaning back a bit and wiping the tears away from her face. "But there's no point. I'm not going to get much more."

"Well, I'm not leaving until you go back to sleep." He dropped his arms so that he could jokingly wave a finger at her. Pacifica looked at the accusing finger and scowled.

"Fine. I guess you're staying here all night!"

"Fine then, I will!" he snapped, quickly becoming annoyed at her sudden attitude. But just as quickly as it had come on, it faded away.

Pacifica blinked, taken aback. "Wait, you will? E-even if I do fall asleep."

He hesitated, eyes wide. "Ah, yeah. I guess. I mean, only if you want me to."

"That – that would actually be... Yeah, I'd – I'd like that. Prefer it. I don't know. Maybe I won't have another one if..."

"You're not alone," he finished. "Yeah. Yeah, sure. I guess I could stay."

Smiling, she shuffled over to make some room for him on the bed. There wasn't much, considering the fact it was a single bed. Dipper looked at the spot nervously.

"What, are you afraid of sharing a bed with a girl or something?" she teased.

"What? Pfft, no!" Slowly he climbed into the bed, trying to keep as much space between them as he could. He was almost off the edge.

"Oh my god, you totally are. Have you ever shared a bed with a girl before?"

"Of course I have," he huffed, pulling the covers up.

"Mabel doesn't count." His face fell. Then he seemed to remember something and opened his mouth to say something. "Neither does the other morning." Once again, his face fell.

"Okay, so it's not like I frequent other people's beds, alright!"

Pacifica giggled. "You're such a nerd."

"Rich girl," he shot back. Though his voice sounded a bit harsh, she could see a smile on his face. They smiled at each other a moment longer, until the mood became sombre once more.

"Thanks for staying," she said.

"No problem. I mean, I get it. If I were having as many nightmares as you... I'm just glad Mabel and I are sharing a room at the moment.

"Isn't that weird, though? Sharing a room with your sister?"

He shrugged, turning on his side to face her properly. "We used to share when we were young. Now... I don't know, it has its ups and downs. It's nice being that close to her again... but it's annoying in other ways. Like the girly sleepovers and the lack of privacy. Still, if I wake up from a nightmare, I know every thing's okay, because she's there." He seemed so nonchalant about it, but it was such a sweet sentiment that it made her melt. "Mabel, on the other hand, meows herself back to sleep."

"She what now?"

He shook his head with a fond smile. "Don't ask."

"Okay, then," she yawned, stretching out. Her arm accidentally went over Dipper's waist, but she decided 'screw it' and left it there. "We should probably sleep."

"Yep," he squeaked. She almost smiled when she noticed how stiff he'd gone. "You're sounding pretty tired."

"So're you." Her eyes were already closed, her voice beginning slurred.

"Good night, Pacifica," he said, rolling his eyes. If she was anything like his sister at a sleep over, they would keep talking till the sun came up unless he stopped it.

"Nigh'."

With just a few more wriggles, she was comfortable and already asleep. Her breathing was even and her face peaceful. Dipper, on the other hand, had just been jolted back to wakefulness. Pacifica's movements had caused her to be fully snuggled into him, her arm wrapped around him and her leg hitched over his hip. This was something he _really_ wasn't used to.

He took a deep breath, trying to relax. This was going to be a long night.

* * *

.oOo.

* * *

When Dipper woke, he was warm and comfortable. Incredibly comfortable. So comfortable he didn't want to fully wake and get up. Instead, he snuggled in, cuddling the soft, warm thing in his arms tighter. His hand gripped at soft skin, and he breathed in the sweet scent of shampoo. He sighed in content.

There was a soft sigh from the thing in his arms and it snuggled in closer, the arm around his waist tightening.

His eyes snapped open.

He was met with the sight of blonde hair and Pacifica's sleeping face. He became aware of their position. She was well and truly wrapped around him, still in the same position as last night. But now he was just as wrapped around her. And while one of his arms was cushioning her head, the other arm wasn't so innocent. The soft skin he'd felt just happened to be the back of her upper thigh. He was practically grabbing her ass!

Quickly, he snatched his arm back tucked it in by his side, his face flaming red. The movement bumped Pacifica awake, and she stretched, almost hitting him in the face. She didn't notice this at all and blinked lazily.

"Morning," she sighed, her eyes drifting shut again.

"Uh, morning," he said, still a little embarrassed. He really hopped that she was too asleep to remember him groping her.

"Mmm. No nightmares," she replied. "Just nice dreams." She tried opening her eyes again, but it wasn't long till they slid shut again.

Dipper laughed. "You don't wake up easy, do you?"

"Noope," she said, snuggling into him more.

"Whoa! Sif, if you move any more I'll fall off the bed!"

"Oh, sorry." Rubbing her eyes, she managed to sit up a bit and shuffle back over towards the wall to give him more room. Then she just sat there, head resting against the wall, her eyes half open.

"You look like you're about to fall asleep again," he commented.

"No sleep," she said. "Wastes the day. Too much to do."

"Not here there isn't."

Still looking ahead, Pacifica seemed to take on a look of curiosity, her head cocking to the side. "What's in those cabinets?"

"Huh?" He followed her gaze behind him and saw the cabinets that were lining the wall. "Oh, those. I don't know. We never looked."

"We should look in them."

"Yeah, we should..."

Suddenly, Pacifica seemed to perk up a bit, and at the same time they gave each other excited grins. "Let's do it!" she said. "I just need to change first."

Still half asleep, she crawled over the bed, practically rolling over Dipper to get out. Dipper sucked in a breath as she climbed over top of him, her bare legs brushing against his own. Oh, that was not helping! Sleepily, she padded over to the wardrobe and picked out a white and purple 50's style dress. She grabbed her bra from the night before and started to take off her shirt.

"Woah, whoa, whoa!" Dipper cried, looking away. "Sif, I'm still in the room!"

"Huh?" She turned to look at him and went bright red when she realised what she was doing. "Oops. Sorry. Could you, ah... turn around?"

"It's fine," he said, shaking his head. "I need to go get changed too." He went to move then suddenly went even redder, if that was possible at this point. "Um... could _you_ turn around?"

"What? Why?" she said in confusion.

He looked about awkwardly. "B-because I'm a guy... and... it's kind of the morning..."

"What's that got to do with- Ohhh..."

When she realised what he was getting at, she quickly turned back to the closet and busied herself with finding accessories to go with the poofy dress. She waited till she heard Dipper walk past and close the door before she began to get changed. And despite the stereotypes, she was actually very fast at getting changed. Her lifestyle called for quick changes for many occasions, so getting ready quickly was a bit of a habit.

By the time she had done her makeup, Dipper still wasn't back. What even took him so long? It wasn't like he had much to change into. He would probably be wearing the same thing again. And he didn't even have to take off his shirt to add an extra undergarment like she did. Idly, she paced around the room, tapping her legs as she did.

Okay, so she never claimed to be a patient person.

Looking about almost suspiciously, she suddenly dashed to the cabinets and opened one.

.

Dipper sighed as he walked down the corridor back to the room. After having a shower and changing into clean clothes, he felt much better. It had been one hell of an awkward awakening. He just hoped that everything would be normal and _not_ awkward when he got back.

Mabel had still been asleep when he'd gone to their room. He wasn't even surprised. It was only 10am, which considering how late they had stayed up, it was pretty early.

He didn't bother knocking when he went into the room. He'd taken long enough in the shower that he was sure Pacifica was changed by now. And he wasn't wrong. Walking in, he found her already sitting on the floor with half a dozen files spread out in front of her. She looked up at him with wide eyes.

"Dipper, did the author of that weird journal of yours live here?" she asked.

"What? No, why?"

She nodded down at the papers and he took a closer look. They were files on strange supernatural things, documenting them with photos, sketches, and accounts. …And he would know that hand writing anywhere.

These were from the author.

.

* * *

.

_**Translations for Pātā**_

**Hai Allah! Moana taake daak! Koto boro hooye gese amader may! Aare koto shunder! Taar chul! Oh amader shunderi may!  
**_Oh my goodness! Moana, look at her! Look at how much she's grown! Oh, she's beautiful! And her hair! Oh, look at our beautiful girl!_

**Shay amader er srthi akhono oh mone nai...  
**_She still doesn't remember our memories..._

**Tao shay bacha. Aamra taar boro, aare eta amader daeto je aamra taake bhalo sekha dai-  
**_They are still children. You should be teaching them better-_

**Fool Moana, taare fooler kotha bolo.  
**_The flowers. Moana, remind her about the flowers._

**Oi haramjadara, jodi aami are boro hoitam, taholey aami tader ke martam onek aage.  
**_Those horrible bastards. If I were bigger, I would have hit them long ago._

**Tara aamar may ke marse, too aami oo tader ke marbo.  
**_They hurt my baby, I hurt them._

**Shudhu Notun? Kintu tomra duijon onek kache. Ke shundor.  
**_Only recently? But you two seem so close. And cute._

**Shay taake pochondo koree!  
**_He likes her?!_

**Amader may preme porse! Shay bhalobasha dubey assey!  
**_Our baby's got a boyfriend. Our baby is in looove!_

**Thikashe!  
**_**Okay!**_


	10. The Author and the Westwoods

_**Hi everyone!**_

_**So, guess who's moving again. Yep. me. We had a bit of an issue with our flatmate. To put it nicely, he's the kind of flatmate you would kick out. But he holds the tenancy agreement, so we're all just leaving. But don't worry, this shouldn't take up too much of my time. It's already half done anyway. We will be moved in by Friday. But good lord, I HAVE SO MUCH STUFF! This is what happens when you have too many hobbies.**_

_**As for the fic, OMG, I have been waiting literally the ENTIRE story to get to this chapter. This is the whole idea that kicked off my need to write this fic. Of course, this is only one of a few plot twists I have in this series, but hey. You may notice there's been a SLIGHT change in the cover too.**_

_**Just a note though, since I'm starting to add a bit of Ford into it. I decided before watching NWHS that I would stick to what I had for the back story with the twins. But of course, as usual I do try and include as much of the actual plot. So it's going to bit of a mash. So when it comes to plot points involving Stan and Ford's past, these things have been set in stone from the get go and they aren't going to change much. Though, as you will see, it has a bit of the 'original mystery trio', so that's not really a bad thing.**_

_**Hope you enjoy!**_

* * *

.

.

.

**The Author and the Westwoods**

.

.

Dipper sat on the wooden floors, looking at the pages spread out before him. "The author," he murmured. "I don't believe it. The author was here! He was in this room! He... Why was he here? Why would all this stuff of his be in the shack?"

"I don't know," she shrugged.

"I can't believe... Look at all this stuff!" he cried, spreading it out. "Redcaps, witches, the gnomes. It even mentions Shmebulock! Senior! This has more detail and subject range than the journals! It's – it's like he did even more study _after_ he wrote their page in the journals, and wrote it all down here. It's – it's-"

"Not all there is."

"Exactly! There's more than just the journals! This is-"

"No, Dipper," she said, getting his attention. "There's more than this. This isn't even one draw."

"Wh-what?"

She gestured to the cabinets, which had a few draws pulled open. "There's all sorts of stuff in there. Seriously, this isn't even part of it."

Quicker than she could blink, Dipper was on his feet and peering into different draws. Rolling her eyes fondly, she carefully got to her feet and went over to help him as he started to grab things out. It wasn't long till the floor was littered with random things they'd taken from the cabinets. There were all sorts. From complete files on certain subjects, to things the Author had collected, and experiments he'd done himself. There were around fifteen different books that for a moment Dipper had thought were more journals, but they were just random books it seemed he'd collected. Some of them wouldn't even open, and others were in strange languages.

"Hey, what are these?" Pacifica asked from her spot on the floor. He went over to her to see that she had picked up a small crystal from a pile of them. It had a bit of a pink and blue sheen to it, and he realised what it was. A height altering crystal.

"Do you have a torch around here? Because if this is what I think it is, you're going to love it." Without a word, she turned the flash from her phone on, then handed it to him. "...That will work. Now watch this."

He aimed the phone at the clock on the mantle and placed the crystal in front of the flash. When the light hit the clock, it shrank.

"Oh my god, you can shrink things with it?!"

"Yep," he said proudly. "And that's not all." He flipped the crystal over and when the blue light hit it, it grew back to its normal size.

"That's amazing! She gasped. "Hey, you could use that to make yourself taller!"

"Ha ha, very funny," he said sarcastically, giving her her phone back. "No, I've actually tried that already. Didn't work out."

"Why not?"

"Well, Mabel and I started fighting over it. Then Gideon got a hold of it and shrunk us so he could steal the deed to the shack."

"Yikes," she said, picking up one of the books off the floor. "Talk about 'Darling I Made the Kids Tiny'."

"Yeah, it was a little bit like that. We didn't run into any ants, but there was a very lazy hamster. Remind me to tell you the whole story later."

"Seriously, how is it that you've done so much since you got here, yet I've lived here my entire life and nothing has ever happened."

"Who knows. Something probably did happen, but your memories were erased. I mean, there were a lot of names in that vault, I wouldn't be surprised if you had a tube too. That and, well… You know. The fairy thing."

"Yeah..." she said, her fingers trailing over the cover of the book she was holding, tracing over the triquetra symbol curiously. "Have you ever gone back to watch any of them?"

"Not yet, but I'm tempted to-"

"Whoa!" She started when the book glowed slightly and opened. "What the hell? That was weird."

Dipper's mouth practically dropped open. "How did you do that?" he gasped. "I tried to open that before but it wouldn't budge."

"I just traced around the triquetra like it shows you, see," she pointed to the area around the symbol... there was nothing there.

"Wait, you know what a triquetra is?"

She shot him a look of annoyance before brushing aside her hair to show her earrings, holding out her hand to show her ring, and pulling up the string of the necklace to reveal the pendant. They all had some form of triquetra. "It's my favourite symbol. It's really pretty, and it can have lots of meanings, as long as its three things that work in harmony." She looked back at the pages. "Wow, this book is seriously weird."

Dipper peered over his shoulder. "Huh, it really is. I mean, what is all this." He pointed to the writing on the page.

She looked at him as if he were daft. "Words. They're words, Dipper."

"Um... no. No, that looks like-"

"Hey, some of it's in Latin. Listen to this..."

"No, no! Don't read-"

"The Temporus est nunc, I sum autem age.  
Sit hoc magia liberum autem eius caveam.  
Long habere I exspectatus hoc potestas.  
Autem I inveniet illud in hoc magnus hora.  
Apud the benedictio autem dea tribus,  
Fac me qui ego sum intelliguntur ad erit."

Suddenly a small gust of wind blew up around her and the air glowed. Her skin tingled almost pleasantly, and she had the feeling of being... free. Like something had been trapping her her entire life, and now she was unchained. It felt incredible... And it scared the hell out of her.

With a squeal, she dropped the book in shock and jumped back. It thumped to the floor, the page spread out. "What the hell was that?!" she cried. Nearby, one of the height altering crystals shattered and she squealed again. "Dipper, what's happening?!"

"I-I don't know, just calm down!" he said, holding out his hands in a calming gesture. Cautiously, he went and picked up the book. It didn't seem to be doing any of the creepy glow-y stuff anymore. "I don't know what any of this is, I can't read it. But I think it's some sort of spell."

"Spell?" she said, her voice still a panicked squeak. "Oh god, what did I do? Did I raise the dead like you did? Oh god!" Again something shattered, and they turned to look in surprise. "It's a ghost! I've summoned a damn ghost!"

The globe broke, crumpling in on itself. Oh god, she'd summoned another ghost. For the second time in one week, a ghost was going to try and kill her! She covered her head at the sound of something else shattering.

She felt Dipper laying his hands on her shoulders. "Pacifica, calm down! I don't know what it is, but I promise we can figure it out together. Just calm down. Breathe." She took in a deep breath, and opened her eyes to keep eye contact with him as she breathed out. "That's better. Just relax. I don't think it's a ghost... I'm going to check the papers. I think I saw a sketch of that book in one of the files on the floor."

Placing the book down on the bed, he began searching through the papers on the floor. "Where is that file on this thing. I saw it before... Ah, here." He picked up a case file and flicked through till he found the sketch of the book Pacifica had picked up and began to read. "_The Witches Book of Shadows. I found the first of these books about a month ago. I found that I was unable to open the book no matter how I tried. After doing some research I discovered what the book was. It is a called a Book of Shadows, a book belonging to a witch that acts as both a spell book and a journal. I found that a Book of Shadows can only be opened by-_"

"By what?" Pacifica asked, sounding a little worried.

Dipper looked at her a moment before continuing to read. _"By a witch, or someone with innate magic. _\- Huh. Innate magic." He stared at Pacifica, then at the page, a little shocked. Yet another thing shattered, and he looked towards where the sound had come from. Pacifica was still sitting on the floor, her eyes wide. "A witch... What do you know, I was right all along," he muttered the last part.

"What?!"

"Nothing!"

"No, but seriously. I'm not a witch," she said. "I can't be. This is some joke, right?"

"Well, you opened the book, so you have to at least have some form of magic. Wow, that's a weird thought. What else does this thing say?" She just stared at him incredulously, her mouth open and shock taking over. "_Recently I was lucky enough to find two more books. One was left open. I managed to look at a few pages before __**someone **__closed it. The book was written in a code, or a series of symbols, much like the one I use. I could not find the symbols anywhere after spending days at the library researching. I have concluded that it is a code only witches can understand. Whether the knowledge of this code is taught or innate, I do not know_."

"What code?" Pacifica said, sitting on the bed, grabbing the book and flipping through the pages. "This is all in English... and Latin."

"Right, I'm going to say the language is innate, then," he smirked.

She glared at him in annoyance. "You've got to be kidding, Pines. It doesn't say that, you're just pulling my leg!"

"I'm not! Honestly!" he turned the page around, pointing to where it was written. "I told you, I can't read that. It looks like gibberish... Oh, here's another update. - _After the purge of the infamous Westwood Witches, we have collected a total of eight books. We have no use-"_

Suddenly a vase that sat in the window shattered. Dipper looked at it in shock, still not used to everything suddenly breaking. Though, he was starting to get a suspicion of what was causing it. Pacifica also had a look of utter shock on her face, but she wasn't looking at the vase. She was looking at him.

"Hang on, wait, what? Say that again?" she demanded.

"That vase just shattered when you..."

"The book, Pines!"

"What? Ah, there's eight books."

"No, the witches. Who did they take the books from?"

"The Westwood Witches. It says there's a file on them. Number 618."

"No, no, no, no, it's not possible," she muttered, crawling to the draws and rifling through the files.

"Why? What is it?"

"Westwood is my mother's maiden name."

"So... your mom's a witch. I mean, that would explain..." He wiggled his fingers at her to indicate the magic.

"No, that's the thing. She's not. I mean, I do call her that sometimes, but I don't mean it literally. I would have noticed that, right? Besides, if she really is a witch, and I am too, then why hasn't she told me... or been teaching me? She wants me to succeed at everything, surely magic would have come in handy with that!"

"Here, I found it!" Dipper said, having been helping her search by looking in the cabinets too. They both sat down on her bed, the book between them. "Let's see what it says. - _The Witches of Westwood are a very old coven. There is evidence of them arriving with the first settlers of Gravity Falls. It is believed that they simply moved south from Salem after the near re-occurrence of the witch trials late in 1841. Within the coven, most members belong to the founding family, the Westwood's. Unlike some of the witches I have come across in my travels, they do not use their magic for good. Nor do they use it for chaos. Instead they are very selfish, and use it for personal gain. Over the years this has led to their vast wealth and high status in the community. March 30__th__ 1982\. It has come to my attention that the Westwood's have been dealing with Bill Cipher. They regularly summon him to our plane of existence. I have found out that they have been dealing with him for centuries, even offering sacrifices and willingly doing jobs for him over the years. We found this tapestry that depicts this, shown right. I have_ -"

"Hey, that's in my house!"

"What?"

"That tapestry." She pointed to the picture. "It's hanging up in my house. It's always been there. I never even questioned it... Well, I thought it was creepy as hell, but I usually ignored it."

"Maybe your mom inherited it."

"She could have done. I mean, I never asked about any of the paintings in the house. They were just there. Man, this is too weird. I'm dreaming. That's it. I'm still dreaming. And for some reason I'm dreaming about being a witch. Any moment now something is going to try and kill me, and I'm going to wake up with the real Dipper shaking me awake. Yep. That makes more sense."

Dipper looked at her sympathetically, though slightly amused. "Okay, Sif. We'll go with that."

"Yep. I'm dreaming."

"Well, while you're still 'dreaming', let's find out more about these witches... Um..." He skimmed through a good section of it, leaving out all the fluff that the author seemed to be putting in the files that he had previously omitted in the journals. "It says that after 'recent events' - that's it, it doesn't explain that further – someone called 'Lee' went on a revenge driven rampage. He wanted to wipe out every witch in the coven, and considering how dangerous they were, the author agreed. But rather than killing them like Lee wanted, he thought that stopping them from using magic would be a better idea."

"That's possible?" she said.

"It says that they went to their friend, America, for help. She created them a spelled ink that would bind their magic and stop them from being able to access it. Then they managed to track them all down and tattoo a sigil on them, and erase their memories of everything to do with magic with McGucket's gun! Whoa!"

"Oh my god, I know that symbol!" she pointed to the sigil that was drawn on the page. "That's my mom's tattoo! She said that she tried to have it removed, but it didn't work. She hates it."

"That's the sigil that stops them using magic," Dipper told her. "I guess that's why your mother never told you she was a witch. She didn't even know."

"Witches, fairies… Next you're going to tell me that there is a bogart or whatever that thing is in Harry Potter," she laughed incredulously.

"Sif, this is serious…"

"No! It's not, Dipper! It can't be! I am not a witch. My mother was never a witch. This is all just some messed up… trick!"

"A trick set up for you thirty years ago? Sif, that's nuts."

"This whole thing is nuts!" One of the crystals shattered.

"Oh yeah? Then how do you explain that?"

"Explain what?"

"This…" Suddenly he shouted, lunging at her slightly. Pacifica squealed in shock and jumped back. Yet another crystal broke. "Every time you've been shocked or surprised, something's shattered or broken. You're doing that." Pacifica scowled at him and shook her head slightly. In the next instant, one of the files on the ground burst into flame. "Ah! And that! Crap, crap, crap!"

He jumped up and started swatting at the fire a few times before he grabbed the old blanket Pacifica had shoved under the bed and smothered it. He let out a sigh of relief when he checked and found that the fire had been put out. Though, now the blanket was slightly melted and the floor charred. Pacifica was just staring at the burnt spot on the floor in fear.

"I really hope that wasn't important," he said, trying to lighten the mood. Curiously he began searching through the pile of ashes to find out what the file had been about. He managed to find a few bits that weren't so damaged that some of the writing was discernable. Only one of them gave any decent information. "Water horse… Huh, maybe he found Nessie or something."

"What?"

"The Lochness Monster. Most people think that it's some kind of water horse."

"Oh." She looked down at her lap where she was clasping her hands together tightly. Noticing this, Dipper frowned and sat back up on the bed with her.

"Hey, why don't we find out what that spell was? How did it go again?"

"The tem-"

"No, no, no! Wait! Don't- don't read it out loud. Trust me, I've already learnt my lesson with the whole raising the dead thing. _Never _read a spell out loud if you don't want it to happen. Here, write it out." He handed her the journal and a pen that he'd brought down with him. "Besides, it will give me a good key to start deciphering that witchy code."

She grabbed the book and flipped to the next empty page, beginning to write it neatly up the top. "I still don't understand how you can't read this."

"I still don't understand how you think it's English," he countered.

She shrugged, continuing to write. "The words look a little funny, and some of them look like they're trying to dance off the page, but that's normal."

"Ah... no, it really isn't."

"It is for me."

Dipper blinked. "Are you-"

"Dyslexic? Yes." She handed him the book back and he glanced at what she'd written.

"Really? You wouldn't be able to tell from your writing. You spell better than Mabel."

She shrugged again. "Practice I guess. They didn't realise it until I was almost seven. It's normal for young kids to write like I did. But when I didn't improve my school had me do some tests. My parents hired tutors and experts to help me. It wouldn't do to have me failing in school because of spelling and reading, you know. So they brought the tutors in every week day for years. And by the time I was taking exam level studies, I had the best scores in our grade." She didn't look at him, instead choosing to focus on the pen she was twirling through her fingers. "I hate reading. I still have days where I just can't seem to spell even the easiest words. Writing still looks funny, and I have to read something a couple of times before I understand it properly. And numbers are just useless. But I'm better than I was even a few years ago. Unlike you, some of us had to work hard to be average... let alone the best."

"I never said-"

"I know," she said quickly. "I just mean, well, it's not fair. For people like you it's effortless. And for people like me it's a constant struggle. I'd hate to think what life would be like if my parents weren't rich enough to get in all that professional help."

Dipper rubbed at the back of his head. "Yeah, it would really suck not being able to read. Speaking of..." He looked back down at the spell. "Let's see. T_he time is now, I am of age. Let this magic free of its cage. Long have I awaited this power. Now I find it in this great hour. With the blessing of Goddesses three. Make me who I'm meant to be._ Wait, why does this rhyme in English, when it's written in Latin? Never mind, this sounds like it's-"

"An awakening spell."

"Yeah. Like, to remove a seal on magic or something. I mean, the first line makes it sound like a time based thing, and-"

"No, Dipper. It's an awakening spell." She held up the book and pointed to a large line of text at the top of the page. To him it just looked like random markings, but clearly to her it was a title that must have read 'Awakening Spell'. It certainly had the right amount of characters and ended in a double figure.

"Oh."

She frowned as she looked at the page again. "I really should have read this first," she said.

"Why? What does it say?" He shuffled over so that he could see the book, even though it did him no good. Pacifica began to read, using her finger to guide her.

"_As is tradition, a Westwood witch comes of age in their thirteenth year, and is allowed to unbind their powers. The Westwoods are a noble and powerful family. Every generation the magic of the Westwoods becomes stronger and stronger. As a result, children are coming into their powers before they are old enough to even learn how to control them. It became a danger. And so a seal was placed upon our bloodline that all those born to it would have their magic bound till they were of age. Below is the spell that will break the seal you were born with. Read well, young Westwood. Blessed be_."

"So, Westwoods are born unable to use their magic."

"Until they read this."

"That would certainly explain why you never knew." He gave her a half-hearted smile. He could tell that she was on edge, and he wanted to try and reassure her.

Pacifica's brow was creased as she read over the information again. "Hold on... what year that this purge thing? When did your author and stuff seal everyone?"

"Ah..." Dipper looked at the files. "August 1982."

"1982... She would have been twelve. My mom. She was twelve."

"So, she never would have had the chance to use her magic. She wasn't of age. They just sealed her up and removed her memories anyway."

"And they did that to my entire family? That actually sounds... brutal. Does this author of yours usually do stuff like this?" she looked at him in concern."

"No, never," Dipper said, worry starting to creep into his voice. He flipped through some of the pages of his own journal. "He's always just been and observer, a documenter. At the very most, he's done experiments on non-sentient things or had to fight things off when they attacked him. It sounds like this Lee guy was hell bent on revenge and dragged the author into it."

"Do you know who that guy is?"

He shook his head. "He's never even mentioned anyone else before. Not even McGucket. Well, not really. I kind of thought he was just this lone adventure guy, you know?"

"This is too weird," she muttered. "This whole town is too weird!" She hid her face in her hands.

"Are you okay?"

She uncovered her face to look at him in exasperation. "Well let's see? In less than a week I've been attacked by a ghost. Watched a whole bunch of people – including you – be turned to wood in a way that looked like a way that looked like a fucking horror film. I disobeyed my parents and ran away from home. I've injured myself and been stalked by some creepy monster. I've been having nightmares almost every night. I just found out that I used to know some fairies, that some group of crazy guys have been erasing my memories for how many years, and that I'm a god damn witch!" She grasped at her hair in frustration, only to look even more annoyed. "And I keep forgetting how short my hair is! Do I _seem_ okay to you?!"

As she spoke the last of the crystals shattered, all of the papers on the floor flew up like they had been blown about by a strong wind, and the journal snapped shut on Dipper's hand.

"Ow! Okay, okay, I know, I'm sorry. I just... want you to feel okay. You've been through enough." He gave her a small, wary smile and her eyes softened. "But, ah... we're going to have to get all this under control."

They looked about at the messed up room and her face fell. "Yeah..."

"Is there anything in those books on basic control?"

"I don't know, I'll have to look. But... there may be... I don't know, I think. It's just a random thought, but there may be another option."

"There is?"

She nodded slowly. "Another witch. Well, not exactly. But maybe someone who might know. There's a bit of a rumour in my family that my great aunt was a witch. America Northwest. She went missing years and years ago, when my dad was a kid. My cousin Ami ended up inheriting all her stuff. She said she's really interested in fantasy and the supernatural. I thought she just meant books and stuff, but... I don't know. Maybe I could talk to her. See if she knows anything. It's a long shot, but..."

"It may be a long shot, but it's worth a shot."

With a small smile, she nodded and pulled her laptop out from under the bed. "Right then. I just hope she's online. Ah, Dipper. I'm going to need the wifi password."


End file.
